Wildfire Flames
by nightsummer
Summary: Harry and Draco receive their inheritances over the summer, can they put aside their differences to save the wizarding world?
1. Intro: Harry's Discovery

Chapter One: Intro: Harry's Discovery

Harry Potter rolled over restlessly in his bed for the millionth time that night. **–Fine.-**He mumbled. **–I give up-**

He sat up and swung out of bed. He padded across the room to the door and opened it slowly, sticking his head out into the hallway. He heaved a sigh of relief as his Uncle Vernon's snores erupted from the closed door down the hall. Dudley was off as some summer camp for overweight children and Aunt Petunia was staying at a hotel about five minutes away from the camp "just in case my Duddikins needs something". Harry mentally shook his head. At this rate, Dudley was going to be obese for the rest of his life.

He crept quietly out of his bedroom, shutting the door with a soft click behind him. He walked downstairs, wincing as the third step from the top creaked loudly. He froze for a second, but then relaxed as Uncle Vernon's snore continued to rumble through the house. When he got to the bottom of the stairs he tip toed to the back door and went out into the night air and onto the gigantic porch his uncle has built that summer.

Tonight was Harry's 16th birthday. At exactly 12:00am he would turn 16. He could still hear Hermione on the train home squealing excitedly in his ear while Ron was in the hall "talking" to Ginny about her "over-active" boy life (she had only had two boyfriends, Dean and Harry for one week but then they decided they were better off just as friends).

**Flashback**

_-Harry! Your birthday is this summer, isn't it Harry? You know what happens on a witch or wizards 16th birthday don't you?- _Here Harry gave Hermione a look that said "Why the bloody hell would I know that?" and she rolled her eyes and continued _– I read in Hogwarts, A History that witch or warlock becomes and mage on their sixteenth birthday, and they receive their inheritance, if they have one. Your inheritance is usually a power surge, and sometimes you come into veela, elemental, elf, vampire, or faery powers. It happens because people who have magical creatures in their family have an extra gene in their body when they're born which is activated on their 16th birthday._

**End Flashback**

So now here he was, too excited to sleep, even though he was exhausted from all the garden work he had done today, on Uncle Vernon's orders. Not that he minded doing garden work. Over the summer he had come to enjoy being outside. Not to mention it got him out of the house with his uncle. It was just that it was really tiring work.

He glanced at his glowing wristwatch impatiently. It said 11:54pm. He sighed and leaned against the porch railing. He didn't know why he was excited anyways. According to Sirius, his mom and dad hadn't had any special powers, they had just been exceptionally powerful people. But Hermione had said powers often skipped generations.

He looked at his watch again and it was 11:58pm. Two more minutes and he could go to bed. He yawned and took in a deep breath of the cool night air. He tilted his head back and let the breeze wash over his face and run through his hair. He loved the nighttime, when the stars came out and the air felt clean and crisp.

His watch beeped, telling him it was finally midnight. He waited for something to happen, but he felt the same as he always did, besides the fast that he was so tired. Oh well. He hadn't really been expecting anything anyway. He could at least check tomorrow morning to see what color his magic was. He was too tired right now. At sixteen, witches and wizards got their color of magic, which indicated how powerful they were. Black was the lowest, indicating either a very low level of magic, or a very high level of Dark magic. Red was the lowest on the color scale, and violet was the highest. White mages were very rare because they were all the colors combined. The most powerful mages ever written in history were almost unheard of. As far as Harry knew, if a person had, for example, blue magic, then they also had all the colors below it, like red, orange, yellow, green and blue itself, which would all show up when they used magic. To say someone had "blue" magic would be to say that his or her highest level was blue. But these mages, called Flame mages, had only one solid color, or if they were really powerful they had two solid colors swirled together. There were only five of these mages in history, and it was rumored that Dumbledore was the sixth two-color mage, also called Wildfire mages, after the first ever mage with two-color magic. The other four were the Four Founders of Hogwarts.

Harry yawned again. All of this remembering was making him even more tired. He might as well just go to bed. He went inside, making sure to make as little noise as possible.

As soon as he got upstairs he got into bed, and was about to take off his glasses when he realized his vision was blurry. He took his glasses off and it was clear again. He put them on once again, and it was still blurry. He started to take them off again when suddenly his sight went back to normal again. He took his glasses off for the second time and stared at them with a puzzled expression. –_That was weird.-_He thought._-I must be really tired or something._

And so, thinking he had imagined it, he put his glasses on the nightstand next to his bed and lay down. He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

What Harry didn't know, though, was that had anybody been out on the street looking at number 4 Privet Drive, they would have seen one window with a faint green glow coming from behind the curtain. But since nobody was out on the street, nobody saw it, and Harry slept on peacefully through the night.

When Harry woke up the next morning it was 11:00am, later than he usually slept, but then that was to be expected since he had been so tired the night before. He felt something on his forehead that said Uncle Vernon had gone for "walk" which really meant that he had gone to visit Dudley, and also explained why he hadn't come in to wake Harry like he usually did at 7am.

He sat up and automatically reached for his glasses. Just as he was putting them on, he realized that he could already see clearly. He slowly set his glasses down and got up to look in the mirror.


	2. Train Conflicts

Chapter Two: Train Conflicts

Draco POV

Draco bolted down the hallway, looking desperately for an empty compartment. He spotted one with the lights off and burst in, slamming the sliding door behind him shut. The crowd of screaming girls rushed past. Draco slumped to the ground breathing heavily. **–That was close.- **He was thinking, when he was interrupted by a voice coming from the dark shadows in the corner of the supposedly empty compartment.

"Malfoy. I never thought of you as the type to run from a bunch of girls screaming your name."

Harry POV 

Harry sat down in an empty compartment, not bothering to turn on the lights. Hermione was a Prefect this year, so she had to go to the Prefect compartment for about the first thirty minutes of the ride, and Ron was in Romania visiting his brother and taking one year of school there, so he was alone for a while. He didn't mind. He didn't want a mob of screaming girls to run after him because he was the Boy Who Lived…wait a minute…what the bloody hell was that noise? It sounded like- suddenly the compartment door exploded open, someone stumbled in, slammed the door shut, and sank to the floor. Someone with blond hair. A crowd of screaming girls rushed past. It could only be…

"Malfoy" Harry said out loud. " I never thought of you as the type to run from a bunch of girls screaming your name."

Normal POV 

Draco narrowed his eyes. He knew that voice. " Potter!" he sneered halfheartedly. " Where are your little friends? Weasel and Granger?" He was tired of fighting but he wasn't about to say so to Potter.

"I might ask you the same question, except I wouldn't use the word friends to describe those two goons Crabbe and Goyle. Where's Zabini? You know he's on the Light side right Malfoy?" Harry replied smugly.

Draco raised his eyebrows. Obviously Potter had changed over the summer. His retorts had become more reserved, instead of his usual fly-into-a-rage-at-the-slightest-insult answers from last year. It was almost Slytherin. He was about to take out his wand and find the light switch when Harry's surprisingly deep and soothing voice floated through the air.

"Lumos." He murmured, and the compartment flooded with light. Draco found himself facing the wall. The light switch was right in front of him so he flicked it on and Harry muttered, "Finite Incantatem".

Draco heard Harry gasp softly and smirked to himself because he had been waiting for this reaction from him. He knew he had changed physically over the summer. "What?" he asked, turning around to face Harry. A small gasp escaped his own mouth when he saw him.

Harry was…there was no other word for it…hot. Something had definitely happened to him over the summer. He had grown and was about 5'10" now. He wasn't wearing glasses anymore, and his emerald green eyes practically glowed against his tanned face. His already well-muscled frame was even more toned and his entire body radiated with a healthy tan. His hair had changed the most noticeably. It was still an inky black, but instead of his usually untamed mess, it was now down around his ears, and kind of flared out in the way that a lot of guys were wearing their hair now. It also had green streaks through it. Draco was wondering how the hell Harry got like this when he realized something. _–Potter's birthday was this summer wasn't it? - _He remembered. Then it clicked. _–Potter received his inheritance too. That's interesting. -_

While Draco was busy taking in Harry, Harry was observing Draco with the same intensity. Draco must have gotten is inheritance over the summer too, because he had changed a lot. Harry wondered why he and Draco had changed so much when almost all other witches or wizards just got a power surge, became mages, and got their colors. Something bothered him, like there was something he should remember. He pushed it to the back of his mind, telling himself he would remember it later. Right now he was kind of occupied with Draco's changes. He had already been the hottest boy at school, besides Blaise Zabini and himself, according to Ginny and Hermione. Now he was certain to make all the girls really drool over him. His blond hair had turned almost white, and if you looked at it the right way it seemed to have silver streaks running through it. He was also a height of about 5'10", maybe a tiny bit taller than Harry himself. His eyes had gone from gray/light blue to blue and sometimes when he was surprised, like now, they turned silver. Harry had noticed that about himself as too. His eyes got light green when he was happy, and when he was angry they turned so dark green they were almost black. All the shades in between went with different emotions. Hermione had told him it was a side effect.

He had gone to the Burrow three days after his birthday. By then, all the changes had taken place. All he knew was when he went to bed, he was normal, and when he woke up, he looked like he did now. When he got to the Burrow, everyone, especially Ron and Hermione had freaked out. After he calmed them all down, insisting that he felt fine, great actually, they called Dumbledore using the fireplace and he explained what had happened. Apparently, his inheritance came from his grandparents, having skipped a generation. He was part vela, part elf, and part elemental. He hadn't tried out any of his supposed "powers" yet. He did know that he was allowed to use his regular wand magic outside of school now, since he was part magical creature. His spells also came much easier to him now.

All of a sudden he realized he and Draco had been staring at each other for about the past five minutes, so he stepped forward and waved his hand in front of the other boy's face. Draco started, and then attempted to resume his normal icy disposition. He began to search his mind for some scorching remark to cover his momentary lapse, but Harry interrupted him.

" Just shut up and sit down. I'm tired of arguing with you. I don't know about you, but at least I have grown up a little."

Draco raised his eyebrows at his blunt comment but surprisingly obeyed. "I'm tired of it too. I don't need that extra tension." Seeing Harry's questioning gaze, he began to explain. " This summer, the night before my birthday, my father tried to get me to receive the Dark Mark." He grimaced at the memories flooding into his head. He didn't know why he was confessing all of this, particularly to Harry Potter, his archenemy for six years. He just knew he needed to talk to someone. "I refused it."

Harry widened his eyes but said nothing. He would never have expected that from the son of Lucius Malfoy, Voldemort's most trusted Death Eater, but he got the sense that Draco needed to talk about what had happened. He wasn't sure why he was talking to him, but he realized suddenly that he didn't mind. He knew what it was like to have no one to talk to.

"I know right? Why would I, Draco Lucius Malfoy, refuse the Dark Mark? The truth is, I refuse to be branded and owned by the most vile creature I have ever met. Yah, I have met him, and it was the worst thing I have ever had to do. He's not even human, Harry." He whispered. Harry didn't even notice the use of his first name. "When Father heard me say no, he threatened to disown me if I disobeyed him, saying it would dishonor the family. I said the family had no honor left, and I would rather die than serve the man who killed innocent people if they didn't support him. Then I ran away. Potter, you've got to understand, I never wanted to be the way I was. I was raised to think purebloods were the best. But the first time I met Voldemort, I knew immediately it was wrong. Everything I had been taught was all wrong. I couldn't stop acting the way I was though. I mean Father would have disowned me on the spot and I would have nowhere to go. Of course that was before I knew that he had signed a Blood Oath at my birth saying he would supply me with a substantial amount of galleons every year until I was 25. So now I am disowned but I still have money. Now I'm just Draco Malfoy, and I am no longer part of my family. Not that it bothers me that much. They all support the Dark Lord anyway." He slumped back against the seat, closing his eyes.

"Wow." Was all Harry could say. Despite what Draco said, he knew it bothered him at least a little.

"Yah I know." Draco replied, and then hesitated to add, "Thanks."

"For what?"

"Listening."

"Oh. No problem." And Harry meant it too. " Ummmm. You can…. stay here if you want. I mean, maybe we can try that whole friendship thing again?" Harry struggled to say what he meant. "Since you're not an evil git anymore." He added to take away some of the awkwardness of the situation. Draco's eyes snapped open at this, then automatically narrowed, as if he was trying to discover Harry's real reason for trying to befriend him. Then he relaxed and wordlessly offered his hand to Harry. Surprised, Harry leaned forward and took it, giving it a firm shake. Harry released his hand and leaned back again.

"So what now?" he wondered out loud.

"Let's just sit here. I could use some time to think." Draco answered.

"Yeah." Harry agreed. "Me too." They both leaned back and shut their eyes, lost in their own worlds. And this was how Hermione Granger and Blaise Zabini found when they came back from their Prefect meeting.


	3. Two New Friends

Chapter 3: Two New Friends

Draco's best friend Blaise Zabini entered the compartment walking backwards, talking loudly to Hermione about Weasley's Wizard Wheezes new caramel, which temporarily turned the person eating it bright purple and green. Hermione was walking in front of him, ignoring him and having an animated conversation about books with two boys that looked to be about their age. She stopped talking when she saw Harry.

"Harry!" His eyes opened reluctantly. "Listen, I know you really don't like the Slytherins, but Blaise and I were talking, and we think this year we should try and be a little more friendly. Even Ron agreed to try. So this year, maybe you could tone down the fights with Malfoy?" she had been going confidently until that last part, where she faltered, looking as if she knew it wasn't going to happen. Then she heard a soft snort coming from behinds her, and she turned to see Blaise and the other boys snickering into their hands, trying to be quiet. "What are you two laughing at? This is a serious matter!" she said angrily, turning back to Harry. " You understand, don't you Harry?" she asked hopefully.

"I think he understands better than you think he does Granger." Said a voice from behind her.

"Malfoy?" she asked incredulously, spinning around to see the blond leaning leisurely against the cushioned seat. Finally the other boys and Blaise couldn't contain themselves any longer and burst out laughing. Draco looked at them with an amused expression on his face, which he had put a glamour on to hide his new features, as had Harry.

"Shut up you two. Its not that funny." Hermione said, a smile tugging at the ends of her lips.

"Yes…it…. is." Blaise wheezed. "You…lecturing…and then he…hahahaha!!!!"

"Whatever." Hermione said, her face turning rather red but smiling nevertheless.

"So you're probably wondering why I, Harry Potter, am sitting in a compartment with Draco Malfoy." Harry said to them.

"No, not really." Said Blaise sarcastically.

Harry nodded to Draco and said, "We can take them off now." And they removed their glamours, causing Blaise to gasp at how Harry had changed and causing the two strange boys and Hermione to do the same with Draco. Blaise showed no surprise at Draco's changes, though, so he must have already known. Hermione knew about Harry's inheritance too. In fact, it had been her idea to have a glamour so that people wouldn't bother him even more. Harry had taken it off on the train, figuring it was safe to relax.

"OK now I'm a little curious." Blaise admitted.

"Well we pretty much decided the same thing as you guys did. Fighting is a waste of energy, especially if you're fighting with someone who's on the same side as you in a war." Harry watched their reactions carefully. Blaise looked like he already knew this, which made sense since he was Draco's best friend. Hermione looked delighted but also like she knew Draco was on the Light Side already. Draco also watched their reactions carefully to see if Hermione would accept him after almost six years of insulting on his part.

"Well," Hermione said, "If that's the case then I suppose we should start over again." She stuck out her hand and continued, much to Draco's surprise, "Hi, I'm Hermione Granger. And you are?"

Draco smiled, which shocked them all, except for Blaise of course, because they had never seen him actually smile before. He took her hand, " I'm Draco Malfoy. Nice to meet you. By the way Gra…Hermione, you're looking good this year."

Harry let out a snort at his ex-rival's attempt to call Hermione by her first name for the first time ever. "That wasn't so hard, was it _Draco_?" he teased.

" Yes it was." Draco replied stubbornly, almost childishly. "Anyway, it's true. You're looking great. What happened?" he joked.

" I got my inheritance this summer too. Apparently turning into a Flame mage turned me into the person I'm 'destined to be'." She quoted. And indeed she did look different. Her bushy brown hair was now a gorgeous mass of waving curls that fell gently down to just above the middle of her back, and her eyes had turned into a cinnamon brown color that stood out even more with her summer tan. She had a beautiful figure and had reached a height of 5'7". " But I'm no the only Flame mage here. Blaise told me he is one now too."

"Yep. Hey we're a pretty powerful bunch." Blaise commented humorously. "I'd like to see old Moldy Voldy mess with us now. What with two Wildfire mages and two Flame mages, we're probably as powerful as him now, although it's hard to tell with them Dark mages."

"I think I'll hold off on the whole 'battling insane Dark lords' thing until I absolutely have too." Harry said wryly.

"So what color are your magics?" Hermione asked curiously. "I'm…" she struggled for the right word to describe it. "I'll just show you." She concentrated on a rip on the compartment seat and a cinnamon-red color flowed swiftly out, wrapped around the seat and the rip mended itself slowly until the magic returned to Hermione's hands, which glowed for a moment and then went back to normal.

" I would say that's crimson." Said a strange voice.

The four turned toward the noise and saw the two boys that had entered with Hermione and Blaise. One of them grinned at Hermione, who immediately started apologizing. "I'm so sorry you guys! I can't believe I forgot about you!"

"It's ok 'Mione." Said the taller one. " We understand you haven't seen Harry or Draco in a long time and you just found out all these things happened over the summer. Anyways, I would describe that as crimson."

Harry spoke up, "Um…not to be rude or anything, but who are you?"

"Guys, this is Aaron and Maxx. I met them when I was at the Prefect meeting with Blaise. They're new students here. Their parents heard about Hogwarts and figured it was safer than the school they were currently going to in the US." Hermione answered for them. The first one that had spoken was a tall boy, at least 5'11", with a muscular, lean body. His eyes were mostly green with specks of earthy brown in them, contrasting with his silky looking, straight, jet-black hair. The second boy was one of the most handsome boys they had ever seen, aside from Draco and Harry. He and the tall boy were definitely going to be friendly competition for the "hottest guy in Hogwarts" title. He had short, light brown, soft hair with an almost bronze color at the tips of the slightly spiky, untidy locks. His eyes were ice blue with long lashes and looked serious but kind with a hint of mischievousness in them. He was about 5'9" with a muscular frame, but in a different way than his companion. He was more lithe and muscular looking, while the other boy was lean and although was probably just as strong, his strength was more hidden then the short boy.

"Thanks 'Mione." The boy who hadn't spoken yet said in a deep musical voice. She grinned sheepishly at him. He continued, " This summer me and Aaron got our inheritances too. I'm a Wildfire mage and Aaron's a Flame."

"It's pretty cool to be going to the school taught by the famous Albus Dumbledore." Said Aaron. " We met him once already. He told us not to use our new powers until we got to school, but we couldn't resist at least seeing our colors." He grinned. " Apparently we're not the only ones. I'm assuming he told you guys the same thing?"

"Yeah." Answered Harry glumly. "So? What are your colors, then?"

"I'm black and green." Aaron replied.

"I'm ice blue and dark teal green." Maxx said in his unique voice that seemed to hypnotize them all for a minute before they shook it off. " And my eyes turn colors between shades of blue and teal depending on my moods and emotions."

"Yeah that's a side effect." Hermione said in her know-it-all voice. They all grinned at her. "What?"

"Same old 'Mione on the inside." Harry said affectionately.

"Well it is." She said defensively but with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "It happens to all Wildfire mages but not usually to Flame mages, unless they're really emotional."

"Cool." Harry said. " I'm like an emerald green and a darker green."

" At least none of us have ugly colors like puke green or anything." Said Maxx, causing them all to laugh.

"So how do you two like it here so far? Is it much different from your old home?" Blaise questioned them.

Aaron shrugged. "We love it so far. The neighborhoods are a lot different though. The houses are more spread apart with less people. But that's probably because we lived in the Muggle community in Vermont…" he stopped when he saw their looks of confusion. He rolled his eyes and explained, " It's like the most unknown state ever in Vermont. It's by New York, which I'm sure you've heard of." Draco, Harry, Hermione, and Blaise all nodded in recognition.

"Yeah most people don't even know it's a state." Maxx said, grinning. "Anyways, we lived in a cul-de-sac with lots of other kids in it. It was nice. A lot of them were our age but they didn't go to our school. They were Muggles but they were lots of fun to play all sorts of games with, like soccer and Manhunt. You guys know that game?" They all nodded, surprisingly.

"Yeah my cousin Dudley used to play that and 'Mione already knew about it since she's Muggle born." Harry told them.

"Me and Blaise love that game. We used to play it all the time when our parents were out doing Voldemort's dirty work." Draco answered at the looks of shock on Hermione and Harry's faces. They got over it quickly though. After all this, little surprised them anymore.

"There were three other boys and five other girls. And a bunch of little kids." Aaron added. " Usually it was me and all the little kids against everyone else, because I was the best player. I did a lot of Muggle sports like soccer and basketball." He explained. "Then over the summer Maxx changed and now he's just as good as me." Then at a look from Maxx, he said, "Better, actually."

Maxx laughed and told them, "He's a bit of a sore loser. He even admits it." They laughed. "Sometimes we played girls against boys if it was a night game and the little kids couldn't come out."

"Who was the best player on the girl's team?" asked Hermione curiously.

"Hmmmm…I would have to say my sister was the best in skills, but one of the other girls had more guts because she was the only one who would actually challenge me when I had the ball." Aaron remembered. " Then there was another girl, who was the first girl's best friend. She was very…uncoordinated." He laughed with Maxx at the memory. My sister isn't a witch though. I'm Muggle born too and apparently she didn't get the gene. Not that I'm complaining. I don't have to go to the same school as her."

"Sounds nice." Commented Blaise. "What school did the other kids go to if they were Muggles?"

"We don't know. We never asked because we were afraid they would ask what school we went to and we couldn't tell them we were wizards, or mages now." Maxx said.

Suddenly the train slowed and stopped with a jolt. "I guess we're here." Hermione said.

"Let's go! I'm starving and after dinner Dumbledore promised to tell us more about what happened to us!" Harry said excitedly. They all exited the train and ran up the steps with the other sixth years into the Great Hall.


	4. The Girls

Chapter 4: The Girls

The six were running up the gigantic stairway with the others in their year when suddenly Hermione stopped. They all ran few more feet before realizing she was behind them. They stopped and Harry asked, " 'Mione what's the matter?"

"The glamours!" she whispered urgently. "Do you want people fawning all over us all year?"

"Shit!" Draco swore. "Here I'll do all of us…wait I can't do Aaron or Maxx because I don't know what they looked like before."

"It's ok I'll do us" Maxx said. Draco and Maxx each lifted a hand and a dark blue and light blue glow surrounded Draco, Hermione, Harry, and Blaise while an ice blue and teal glow surrounded Maxx and Aaron. When it vanished they all looked as they would if they had not changed. Despite the fact that they no longer looked non-human, they all still looked better than they had the past year. Hermione's hair was nowhere near as bushy as it used to be and Draco no longer looked as bitter and mean. Aaron looked around them and saw that thankfully no one had noticed them yet since they were all completely concentrated on getting to the feast.

They finished their ascent of the stairs and walked straight into the Great Hall. They split up reluctantly and Draco and Blaise walked over to the Slytherin table while Harry and Hermione went to Gryffindor table, wishing Maxx and Aaron good luck. They had to get Sorted with the first years because it was their first year at Hogwarts and they didn't have a House yet. The first years walked in and were Sorted quickly, and when they were done Dumbledore stood up and announced, " Before we begin the feast, I would like you all to welcome four new students to Hogwarts who will be in the sixth year. They need to be sorted into Houses as they went to school in the US."

The Houses all clapped politely as Maxx and Aaron walked up to stand by the chair with the Sorting Hat on it. Harry and Hermione, sitting with their friends Dean, Seamus, and Neville, looked at each other puzzled._ Four_ new students? Their questions were answered when two girls who had been standing unnoticed in a corner by the staff table walked up to the chair as well. They couldn't see very well from down at the Gryffindor table but they could see that the four kids were staring at each other in shock.

"Why do they look so surprised?" Harry wondered aloud to Hermione in a whisper.

"I don't know." Hermione whispered back.

Maxx went first and Professor McGonagall set the hat on his head. A few moments later the Hat shouted out, "GRYFFINDOR!" He grinned at Harry and Hermione as the entire table stood up to clap and welcome their new member. Aaron went next and he was also Sorted into Gryffindor. Then the girls' turn came and the taller girl walked to the chair, tripping along the way. Instead of turning red and being embarrassed, she stood up quickly and grinned at the crowd of students and waved. Everyone laughed as she sat down, this time with no mishaps, and was sorted into Gryffindor. The shorter one sat on the chair for a long time before she was finally sorted into Gryffindor as well.

"Well!" Dumbledore said, standing up again with an amused twinkle in his eyes, "It looks like Gryffindor is full up this year!" The students laughed and he waved his hand over the Hall. "Let the feast begin!"

The last girl to be Sorted reached the Gryffindor table just as food appeared on the table. She met the first girl near the table and looked for a place to sit. Hermione waved them over, thinking they looked like someone she could become friends with. The taller girl sat down next to Hermione, across from Aaron and the second girl sat down next to her, across from Maxx.

"Hi." Hermione smiled. "I'm Hermione Granger. This is Harry Potter."

They all shook hands and Harry was pleasantly surprised when neither of the girls made a big deal out of his scar.

"This," Hermione continued, "Is Maxx and Aaron."

"Hey." Said the girl who had tripped. "I'm Julia. This is Melodia. And we already know them." She said, looking at Maxx and Aaron with disbelief.

"Ugh! I hate that name!" said Melodia with a light, entrancingly beautiful voice. It reminded Hermione of Maxx's voice, beautiful and slightly hypnotic. "Call me Mel." She smiled.

"OK." Hermione said. "So you guys know each other?"

"Yah." Disbelief colored Maxx's deep voice. "If you don't mind me asking, what the hell are you guys doing here?"

Julia seemed too shocked to answer so Mel said, "Our parents heard about how safe Hogwarts is so we moved here. I can't believe this is where you're going. I didn't even know Aaron was a wizard. I knew Maxx was, though."

"I didn't know you either of you were. To think we spent our whole lives in the same neighborhood going to separate wizarding schools and never knowing who each other really was." Aaron said, shocked. "And you never told me Mel was magical." He accused Maxx.

"Well I couldn't, it was a secret. She didn't know you were one either. I just knew because…well never mind." Maxx said quickly.

Julia shook her head and found her ability to speak. "Wow. I can't believe this. This is just too weird."

"Oh, are you two from their old neighborhood?" Harry asked incredulously. They nodded and he shook his head. "That's weird."

They all chatted for a while, telling each other about their old schools and talking to Harry and Hermione about Hogwarts until Harry began telling the story of meeting Maxx and Aaron. He hesitated for a moment when it came to telling the girls about being Wildfire and Flame mages but Maxx said they were trustworthy. Aaron took up the part about how he was a Flame mage and Maxx was a Wildfire mage so he could brag. Maxx was right, he was very competitive. But as soon as he started to brag about how they had always been able to beat them but now they were more powerful and were even faster and stronger, Mel and Julia started to laugh at them.

"What?" he asked, baffled.

"We'll tell you when we get to the Common Room." Julia told him, still bursting into small fits of laughter. She whispered something to Hermione and Harry and they all began to laugh.

"Why do they get to know now?!" Aaron asked, fuming. He hated being laughed at.

"Because. They just do." Mel answered him. Maxx just shook his head at his friend's impatience. Sure, he liked being powerful but he wouldn't brag about it to other less powerful people. Besides, Julia and Mel both had nasty tempers, although it was much easier to get Julia riled up than Mel. Julia was more of a person who was very emotional and reacted quickly to what people said. Mel thought it over and it took a lot to get her mad, but when she did, whoever made her mad better run and hide. Sometimes Aaron would try to make her mad and fail for hours before she finally just walked away and ignored him. Aaron was just like Julia and Maxx was more like Mel, he didn't get mad unless it was for a really good reason.

Finally the feast ended and they all walked up to the Common Room. The Head Boy and Girl were still at the feast discussing things with Dumbledore so Hermione gave the fat lady the password, which was "phoenix". They all entered the Common Room and were about to sit down when Harry suddenly jumped like a foot in the air, startling everyone else and said "Bloody hell! I completely forgot! Dumbledore told me to meet him in his office after the feast!"

This triggered the memory of everyone else and they all remembered he had told them the same thing. Aaron said to Mel and Julia, "We have to go and talk about being powerful mages, we'll see you later," in a condescending tone. Maxx just rolled his eyes and they all exited back out of the portrait.

Aaron walked in the front talking to Harry about how it was too bad Julia and Mel had to stay there alone when a beautiful voice remarked from right next to him, "Yeah that's too bad." Aaron jumped and turned to see Mel and Julia walking with the rest of them.

"What are you doing? You can't come with us." He told them.

Harry and Hermione laughed and Hermione said, "Go on, show them."

Giggling, Mel waved her hand and the most beautiful shades of green and blue they had ever seen flowed out of her hand to wrap around Julia and herself. Slowly the magic receded and Aaron and Maxx watched, eyes wide, as two changed girls stood before them. "Hate to burst your bubble," Julia said to Aaron, "but we're mages too. I'm a Flame mage like you. My color is a light green, almost white." Aaron gaped as he looked over the two girls. Julia was a tall girl, almost as tall as him, standing at about 5'10", and her wavy, long, brown hair with blond highlights shone with health. It reached just above her knees but she had it in a ponytail. Her eyes were green with white specks in them. She was slender but obviously muscular and tan.

Mel was beyond doubt just as beautiful. Her dark brown hair with light brown streaks cascaded in curls down to the middle of her waist. Her eyes were impossibly blue and almost glowed in her tan face, although she wasn't as tan as Julia and was more golden brown than a dark tan. She was about 5'7", about two inches shorter than Maxx, and was also slender and muscular. She and Julia now tied with Hermione for Hogwart's title of "hottest girl". Maxx and Aaron blinked and recovered from the shock.

Aaron spoke first. "Oh." Was all he could seem to say at first, but after a moment he said, "Well Maxx is a Wildfire mage. He's more powerful than you are." Maxx glared at his friend. Why couldn't he just shut up?

Mel just looked at Aaron and said, "Actually, I'm a Wildfire mage too. My colors are blue and green."

"Cool!" Maxx exclaimed. Aaron glared at him and sulked. He had been so excited about being more powerful than they were. Everyone ignored him and started walking again, talking about how they were all mages now and wondering what Dumbledore was going to tell them. When they got to the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to his office they saw that Blaise and Draco were already there, looking frustrated.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked, coming up behind Draco.

"We can't figure out the bloody password." Growled Blaise.

"Hmmmm…its usually some kind of candy or a strange word or something random like that." Harry said. "Sugar Daddy?"

Catching on, everyone else tried.

"Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans?" guessed Hermione.

"Lemon Drops?" Draco tried the Headmaster's favorite candy.

"Pumpkin Pasties?" Mel said.

"Laffy Taffy?" Maxx tried a Muggle sweet,

"Milky Way?" Blaise asked.

"Snickers?" Aaron attempted.

"Superkalafragalisticexpealadocious." Julia said randomly. The stone gargoyle slid open and bowed to her, winking.

The others all stared at her.

"How the hell did you know that?" Draco asked her.

"Well I thought it was obvious." Julia said.

"Um…no." Aaron said, looking perplexed. "How do you always know these things?

"I just do. Besides, _Mary Poppins _is his favorite Muggle movie. He told me that when I first met him." Julia leaped up the staircase.

Mel laughed. "Don't worry, you get used to it." She told them.

"No you don't." Aaron muttered on the way up the stairs. "She's so weird."

"I heard that!" came Julia's voice from halfway up the stairs. "And I am not! I'm unique!'

As they climbed up the spiraling staircase Hermione introduced Mel and Julia to Blaise and Draco and filled them in on what had happened. They finally got to the top and knocked on the big wooden door which automatically opened. They walked in to see Dumbledore sitting in his chair, smiling at them all.

"Well hello." He greeted them, absently petting Fawkes on his desk. "Come in, sit down. We have much to discuss and I'm sure you all have many questions."

They all sat down and looked expectantly at their professor.

"Would anyone care for a lemon drop?" he asked them. They held back their laughter and politely refused except for Julia who said, "Yes thank you." And took one. He smiled generously at her and helped himself to one as well. "I see you have all become fast friends." He said approvingly. "Let's get down to business though. First I must tell you all something rather important. You are not all completely human."

7


	5. Inheritances

**A/N-**Hey…so I finally updated, actually I did it twice in one day because it was just one of those days where you have to sit around and do nothing just 'cause you feel like it. Anyways, sorry about last time when I said the word superkalafragalisticexpealadocious was from the wrong movie. Boy did I feel stupid after that, lol. OK I know like nobody reads these anyway so…on with the story! Oh by the way, _mix-matched socks, _I'm gonna fix that little part from last chapter 'cause I know it bothered you, lol so you can go back and read it if you want.

_Last time…_

"Would anyone care for a lemon drop?" he asked them. They held back their laughter and politely refused except for Julia who said, "Yes thank you." And took one. He smiled generously at her and helped himself to one as well. "I see you have all become fast friends." He said approvingly. "Let's get down to business though. First I must tell you all something rather important. You are not all completely human."

Chapter 5: Inheritances

They all stared in shock at the old man sitting before them. Harry was the first to speak.

"What do you mean, we're not all human?"

"When you received your inheritances," Dumbledore began, "your magical creature genes were activated. Not only are you extremely powerful mages but each of you has a bit of a magical creature within you, perhaps more than one. I knew your parents had genes that they passed on to you that skip generations. Any magical creatures within you come from your grandparents or other ancestors."

"How do we know what creatures we are? Especially if you told us to not use our magics yet?" Mel asked.

"Just a moment…." Dumbledore fumbled around for his wand. "Ah! Here we go!" he flicked his wand and a battered old book popped into the air. "Now let's see..." he mumbled, flipping through the pages and stopping when he got to the exact middle of the book. He laid it open and completely flat on his cluttered desk. Harry, Hermione, Draco, Mel, Maxx, Aaron, Blaise, and Julia stared at it curiously. Just as they were about to ask what it was, the book glowed an electric blue and a woman appeared, hovering just over the pages. She greeted the professor in a deep, knowing voice, and then rotated to face the teenagers.

"Well I see you've got yourself a rather powerful bunch here, Albus. " she smiled at them all. " I am Aaliyah, a Seer from the past. I can tell what inheritances people have inside of them. I haven't seen a bunch like you in centuries. Now, who's first?"

"I'll go!" Hermione said eagerly.

"Ah, always questing for knowledge, this one." Aaliyah smiled at the young girl. "Very well. But before I begin I may as well tell you all this. Every one of you is part elf, which means you all have telepathic powers and can move faster than any normal human being. It also makes you more powerful than most witches and warlocks."

"And you, my dear," she said, addressing Hermione again. "You are Elf and vampire and faery. Don't be shocked. Being part vampire does not require you to drink blood. It simply gives you many times the power you would normally have and gives you speed faster than any elf. You also have the ability to turn into a bat, although many think that is just a legend. Being a faery gives you certain powers such as wings and healing powers. You also have control over the elements, to a small extent. Do not hesitate to call upon the Little People when you are in need. As a Flame mage, an elf, and a faery they will do as you say."

Hermione smiled widely at her new power and blinked when Aaliyah waved her hand and Hermione's glamour disappeared and she was returned to her natural beautiful self from after the transformation. Her eyes grew wide when she reached to touch her back and found that she gad grown a beautiful pair of cinnamon colored faery wings. Her eyes shone with pleasure. The others clapped, happy for her.

"Who's next?" asked Aaliyah.

Harry shrugged and replied, "I'll do it."

"Hmmm. You are Elf, elemental, and veela. Your veela powers give you a strong attractive appearance and you also have a mate, either male or female, although male veela often have male mates. It is common. Your elemental powers reside in earth, and plants. You can also transform into a black panther and you can turn invisible."

Harry grinned and shed his glamour as well. "That's useful." He said, closing his eyes and concentrating. Everyone in the room gasped as suddenly a large, sleek black panther replaced where Harry had sat. The panther blinked and then Harry was sitting where the panther had been. "Cool!" he exclaimed. "Draco, you go next!"

"Sure." Draco said coolly, hiding his excitement behind his usual mask.

"You are Elf, elemental, faery, and veela. Basically you have the same powers as Mr. Potter here except your element is different and you have the same faery powers as Ms. Granger. Your element is ice, clouds, water, and I believe you have some control over weather, such as making it rain, but only if there are clouds there already. You do not have the ability to summon clouds. You are extremely capable with shields. If you were to transform you would most likely have acquired a pair of white and silvery wings and I believe if you concentrate you can figure out your Animagus form. However, I suggest waiting until you are outside to do that." Her eyes twinkled happily.

Unable to contain his excitement any longer, Draco burst out into a smile that shocked everyone and removed his glamour, growing a pair of white and silvery wings just as Aaliyah has predicted. Hermione grinned at him and they both concentrated and the wings disappeared. Aaliyah moved on to Blaise, who was waiting anxiously for his turn.

"You are Elf, faery, and vampire, just like Ms. Granger. You have the same powers as her except I think your wings would be more turquoise colored."

"Turquoise?" Draco questioned. The others realized Blaise had never told them what his colors were.

"Yah." He grinned sheepishly, taking off his glamour like everyone else who had gone. "Turquoise is my magic color. You guys all had cool colors and nobody ever asked me so I just kept quiet."

"I think turquoise is a cool color. It's my favorite color actually." Commented Hermione.

"Thanks 'Mione." Blaise flashed a grin at her. Hermione couldn't help but realize how handsome the boy was, especially when he smiled. His turquoise eyes went beautifully with his olive skin and dark hair. He was just a couple inches taller than her, standing at about 5'9" with a toned body. She blushed at the nickname and to cover it up she said, "Aaron how about you next?"

Aaliyah turned to the tall boy. "You are almost all Elf. This makes you quick and agile and one of the most powerful beings. I'm not saying you are more powerful than any here but definitely ranking high in the wizarding world. I think that you will find that if you took off your glamour you would have pointed ears. That is also why you are so tall. You have a lot of power over pure energy, such as fire and lightening. You would blend easily with shadows and the dark, as your magic is black and green. This may lead you to believe you are a Wildfire mage but you are not. It is simply your Elf magic is black and your mage magic is green."

She turned next to Julia after letting everything sink in and waving her hand to dispel Aaron's glamour. "You are very special dear. You have the powers of an Elf, like everyone else, but you also are part unicorn and thunderbird. This means you have the ability to heal and have power over thunderstorms. You can transform into a unicorn and a thunderbird. Thunderbirds are huge eagle-like birds that can create storms. But your most special quality is your ability to See. This does not come to you in visions but just as a knowing feeling." She finished.

"I must hurry." Aaliyah said. "My time is running out. Others are in need of me. But first…" she faced Maxx and Mel. "You two have very special gifts. Use them wisely. You are part elemental and part Elf but also you are Singers.

To Maxx she said, "Your element is fire, light, and water. You have the most control out of all of us here, excluding Mr. Malfoy. The day will come when that control will be needed. Do not hesitate to use it to help loved ones when they are out of control or in need of soothing words and love." Here Maxx gave her a searching look, confused. Aaliyah continued with, "I cannot tell you more. You shall see."

"And you, Melodia. Your element is weather, specifically the wind. You, unlike Mr. Malfoy, can summon a storm anywhere, anytime, and wind is at your command. Be careful how you use the wind. You are more powerful than you think."

"Most importantly, being a Singer is a great responsibility. Singers are so rare that they were thought to be a legend. Your voices have the power to heal, and to kill. Music can be beautiful but deadly. I have to mention that dancing is part of your powers too, but probably will only be used as a form of relaxation for the two of you because you can't just start dancing in the middle of a battlefield. Just remember to use the music to your advantage. You can produce music anytime you need it and it will give you power and strength." She started to fade. "I am sorry but I must go now. These are times of darkness and evil and many are in need of my counsel. Good luck!" and with that she popped out of existence and the book closed with a snap and vanished. Dumbledore leaned back in his chair with a sigh that broke the heavy silence.

"I see the bunch of you are more powerful than I could imagine. Use these powers for good and not evil." He warned them. " Oh and before I forget, she didn't have time to mention that Maxx and Mel also have Animagus forms. But I think it would be better to retire for the night. You have all had a long day and it is late. Tomorrow we shall meet in front of the castle and I will take you to a place where you can begin learning about your new powers. I know this is a lot of information to take in one day but not to worry, all questions will be answered soon. I suggest you get some rest for tomorrow. Also, classes start on Monday and you will receive your schedules on the day after tomorrow, which is Sunday I believe. Good night."

The teens left quickly, excited about what they had learned but also exhausted. As they were walking out the door, Dumbledore suddenly called them back.

"I forgot to tell you. As you are all mages and will probably need the privacy, I have arranged for separate room to be prepared for you. Just follow Fawkes. She will know where to go."

The eight young people waited until Fawkes came gliding out of the room and they all followed her up several staircases and down a hall they had never seen before. Stopping before a portrait of the Four Founders, Fawkes vanished with a crack and left the group to think of a password. Finally agreeing on _Dippin' Dots_, a Muggle ice cream, they stumbled through and without really noticing where they were, vaguely saw eight doors with small staircases leading up to them out of a large common room. Each door had a nameplate on it and they walked slowly to the one with their name on, opened the door, mumbled our goodnights and quickly tumbled into their beds.

So there you have it, chapter 5. I hope to have chapter 6 up sometime this week.


	6. Learning More

**A/N** I'm finally back in state and today I stayed home sick so I figured it was the perfect time to update. Sorry about the wait, I've just been so busy lately, and we've got midterms coming up so for some reason all the teacher decided we need more homework. Anyway here's the story. Enjoy! I'll probably be updating chapter 7 as well since I have nothing else to do.

By the way…for those of you who keep reviewing or emailing me about where Ron is, you will see that in the first chapter I tell you RON IS IN ROMANIA VISITING HIS BROTHER AND TAKING A YEAR OF SCHOOL THERE!!!! So just in case you don't get it, that means Ron is NOT in this fic (well actually he's in it at the end but shh don't tell). Whew ok sorry its not like I'm mad or anything at people who asked me that question its just that so many people asked me that question that I felt like I had to give a group answer. Its not that I don't like Ron, I do, but he just doesn't fit in with this story because the only person I could've put him with was Hermione and I refuse to make such a boring and predictable relationship like that one in my story. Ok I'm good, here's the story ;-)

Last time… 

The teens left quickly, excited about what they had learned but also exhausted. As they were walking out the door, Dumbledore suddenly called them back.

"I forgot to tell you. As you are all mages and will probably need the privacy, I have arranged for separate room to be prepared for you. Just follow Fawkes. She will know where to go."

The eight young people waited until Fawkes came gliding out of the room and they all followed her up several staircases and down a hall they had never seen before. Stopping before a portrait of the Four Founders, Fawkes vanished with a crack and left the group to think of a password. Finally agreeing on _Dippin' Dots_, a Muggle ice cream, they stumbled through and without really noticing where they were, vaguely saw eight doors with small staircases leading up to them out of a large common room. Each door had a nameplate on it and they walked slowly to the one with their name on, opened the door,

mumbled their goodnights and quickly tumbled into their beds.

Chapter 6: Learning More 

The next morning they all got up to find that the small kitchen attached to their common room would supply them with whatever food they wanted. As they munched on their breakfast, they realized Julia was still in bed.

"I wouldn't expect her to be up yet. It's only 11:30." Maxx said as if this explained everything.

"Exactly, its already 11:30!" Blaise exclaimed.

" Yah so…3 or 4 more hours and she'll be up." Mel finished her bagel and went to go get her shoes from her room.

"3 hours?!" Harry said incredulously.

"Maybe 4." Maxx reminded him. "After knowing her for a few years you get know how late she sleeps."

"Well we don't have that kind of time today. We have to meet Dumbledore and she isn't sleeping in that late. I want to get to know these 'powers' of mine. By the way, what time are we supposed to meet him" Aaron took another croissant and brandished his wand with an evil grin. "I'll be right back."

"Wait! What time are we meeting Dumbledore?" Hermione asked him.

"Well if anyone knows, its Julia. After all, she's a Seer, isn't she?" he called back over his shoulder as he entered Julia's room.

"Uh-oh. He's so dead." Mel said, laughing. "3, 2, 1-"

"AARON!!!! YOU BETTER RUN!!!" and Aaron came running out of her room with a huge grin and a slightly frightened look in his eyes. Behind him came the dripping wet figure of Julia. She fixed her frightening green eyes on Aaron "After I take my shower, I am going to kill you!" turning on her heel, she slammed the door and Aaron dropped into a chair, chuckling to himself.

"Uhhhhh…Draco? Are you eating…chocolate ice cream?" Harry asked, watching Draco scoop something brown into a bowl.

"Yes." Was all Draco said as he concentrated on getting exactly the right amount of ice cream into his bowl.

"For breakfast?"

"It's almost 12!" Draco said defensively. "And its chocolate fudge brownie ice cream, not just chocolate ice cream."

"Weirdo." Blaise commented.

"Mmmm…" Draco stuck a spoonful in his mouth and swirled it around with his eyes closed, savoring the flavor. When he opened his eyes he saw Harry looking intently at him. "What?"

Harry immediately stopped staring and turned red, mumbling, "You've got a bit of chocolate on you." And quickly returned to watching Draco, entranced, as his tongue flicked out to get the drop of ice cream on his soft pink lips. A thought occurred to him but he pushed it away. He couldn't like Draco. Sure the boy was damn hot and Harry knew he was bi, but it was still Draco Malfoy. Tearing his gaze from the blond, Harry turned to Mel.

"How long are Julia's showers? Since Dumbledore never told us when to meet him, we'll just have to leave when she gets out and find him ourselves."

Just as Mel was about to answer, Julia appeared at her doorway.

"Ready to go? We're meeting Dumbledore at 1 o'clock."

Everyone stood up and got ready to leave. Aaron whispered to Blaise, "Told ya she knew. Oh shit." As his remark drew Julia's attention to him. She slowly turned around and advanced on him with a death glare. Aaron slowly backed up until his back hit the portrait door.

"Would you care to explain to me why you had the urge to wake me up using ice cold water all over me?"

"N-not really." Aaron stuttered, his usually arrogant face replaced by one of uneasiness.

"Guys! Just let it go!" Mel advised. "They go at it for hours if you don't stop them" she told everyone.

With a final glare, Julia whipped around and walked with the rest of them out of the door. Aaron followed, a look of relief on his face.

"Here. I saved you a roll." Mel handed a large buttered roll to Julia who thanked her and ate it quickly. They walked in the direction of the main doors to Hogwarts to meet Dumbledore. Halfway there, Harry doubled over in pain.

"Harry! What's wrong!" Hermione cried.

"I…can't breathe…my whole body…hurts." Harry managed between gasps. Maxx reached out to help him up but Harry let out a yelp of pain when the hand touched him sensitive skin. They all hesitated, unsure of what to do. "Gotta…get to…Dumbledore" he gritted out.

"Of course! He'll know what to do. But how…" Hermione bit her lip and she almost voiced all their thoughts. How could they get Harry to Dumbledore without touching him? Their question was answered as Draco finally decided there was no way other than to carry him and as no one else was willing to cause Harry more pain, he would have to do it. He slowly reached out a hand, realizing he really didn't want to either. But somebody had to do it. His hand touched Harry's shoulder and Harry suddenly relaxed and collapsed to the ground, weak. Looking at everyone else in confusion, Draco saw their facial expressions mirrored his. Shrugging, he gently picked Harry up, who immediately yawned and fell asleep.

When they finally got to the main entrance, Dumbledore was already there waiting for them. He grinned widely at the sight of Harry snuggled up against Draco's chest, fast asleep. All of them began at once to try to explain what had happened. The old man held up a hand and said, "I believe that if we take Mr. Potter outside, he will be just fine. Then I will explain what happened."

"Outside? But what's that gonna-Ow!" Aaron was cut off by a smack on the head by Mel.

"Shut up and come on!"

"Jeez. No need to get physical." He glared, rubbing his head tenderly.

Draco carried Harry out into the sun and laid him on the grass with the others watching closely. Suddenly he leapt back.

"Whoa!" Maxx exclaimed, eyeing Harry cautiously. The grass was curling around their friend's slim frame, completely covering his long legs. Harry's eyelashes fluttered, then his eyes opened, the deepest shade of green they had seen them for a long time.

"Harry!" Hermione rushed forward to give him a quick hug. Harry grinned and disentangled himself from the grass, which sank back into the ground.

"What happened?" Harry asked, stretching. "I was all in pain and then Draco touched me and I fell asleep, and now I feel better than I've felt in-oomph!" he almost had the wind knocked out of him as Draco launched himself at Harry. Bewildered, he wrapped his arms around the other boy. Then Draco pulled back, embarrassed.

"You idiot! What did you do that for?! I…we thought you were dying or something!

"Uhhh…sorry?" Harry said, confused but amused. "Didn't know you cared, _Draco._" He teased him.

Blushing, Draco mumbled something about how he shouldn't have worried Hermione like that.

"It was not Mr. Potter's fault. Well not entirely." Dumbledore cut in, his eyes twinkling merrily. "How long has it been since you have been in extended contact with plants of any kind, Harry?"

"Since…since I left the Dursley's sir. Why?"

"Ahhh there you have it then. Your element is plants, my dear boy. You need some contact with them for energy."

"Ohhh. That explains why I have been feeling weak."

"Yes, well…I believe we are now running late…let us go forth!" Dumbledore said brightly, humming "We're off the see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!" under his breath.

Exchanging looks and ignoring Draco's questions of who was the Wizard of Oz, the teens followed their professor through a wall under one of Hogwart's gigantic windows and into a really, really big field. The field was surrounded by identical stone walls that reached up to touch a ceiling much like the ceiling of the Great Hall, charmed to look like the actual sky. The actual field was filled with long, light green grass and several different kinds of flowers. On one side of the "room" there was a large pond with clear, sparkling water and bordered by tall majestic trees. In the middle of the field was a big clearing which Dumbledore led them to on a skinny path. They all sat on the shortened grass of the clearing, except for Draco, who conjured up a cushion to sit on.

"What?" Draco said imperiously when Harry rolled his eyes. "I like being clean. And these are my second best robes. Oomph!" and Harry collapsed in laughter as Draco fell ungracefully on his arse when Harry yanked the cushion out from under him just as he was about to sit down. Draco glared at him.

"Potter!"

"Uh-oh!" Harry scrambled to get up before Draco could leap at him. The two boys ran in circles around the others, who stayed seated and watched Draco slowly catch up to Harry and lunge for his arm. Draco dragged him to the ground and straddled him, pinning his arms to his sides.

"Uncle!" wheezed Harry, red from laughter.

"What?"

"Uncle! It means…"gasp "...stop! I give!"

"Oh no, I don't think so mister. You're not getting away with it that easily." And Draco proceeded to tickle Harry mercilessly until there were tears streaming down his face. Draco finally stopped and said, "Alright, I guess you've learned your lesson." He stood up and helped Harry to his feet, then swiftly sat down on his cushion before someone else could take it. Taking deep breaths, Harry sat down next to Hermione as if she could protect him and the rest of them, amused, looked to Dumbledore, who was waiting patiently.

"Now that we are all settled, I can tell you why I have brought you here. This place is called the Room of Secrets. It was created by friends of the four Founders, elves from another land. It is completely spelled against anything except those with the purest hearts and intent. It is safer even than Gringotts. This way I can teach you without fear of interruption or of your magic getting away from you and harming someone outside of this room. This is where I will give you lessons on control, and how to become mentally and physically stronger. I was planning on giving this training to Harry anyway, to help him in the inevitable war coming up, but when the rest of you gained such powers, I included you in my plans. You will learn absolute control, and how to defeat even the strongest of wizards or witches. It will take a lot of work, and at times it may be frustrating, but you must not let your magic get away from you. I have the feeling that some of you may be better at other exercises than others, but we will see. Shall we begin?" he finished with a flourish.

Nodding eagerly, the young people listened closely to their tutor. They couldn't wait to test their new powers.


	7. Uh, This is Gonna Take Some Work

**A/N **Finally I have updated! I swear I never meant to be one of those authors who never update except like once a month or something but I have been so busy. Anyways I feel really bad about keeping anybody waiting so I'm going to be updating a lot in the next few weeks, well a lot for me anyways. OK here's chapter 7 after a long wait and a lot of writer's block.

Last time… 

"Now that we are all settled, I can tell you why I have brought you here. This place is called the Room of Secrets. It was created by friends of the four Founders, elves from another land. It is completely spelled against anything except those with the purest hearts and intent. It is safer even than Gringotts. This way I can teach you without fear of interruption or of your magic getting away from you and harming someone outside of this room. This is where I will give you lessons on control, and how to become mentally and physically stronger. I was planning on giving this training to Harry anyway, to help him in the inevitable war coming up, but when the rest of you gained such powers, I included you in my plans. You will learn absolute control, and how to defeat even the strongest of wizards or witches. It will take a lot of work, and at times it may be frustrating, but you must not let your magic get away from you. I have the feeling that some of you may be better at other exercises than others, but we will see. Shall we begin?" he finished with a flourish.

Nodding eagerly, the young people listened closely to their tutor. They couldn't wait to test their new powers.

Chapter 7: Uh, This is Gonna Take Some Work 

"The first thing you need to learn is control. To help you with this, I'm going to teach you how to meditate. It sounds easy, but its not. So, to start with, close your eyes, and find a comfortable position to sit in. Now breathe in…hold it for five seconds…breathe out. Imagine yourself inside your magic. See that bright part in the center? No don't open your eyes, just nod slightly. Ok. That's your magical core. Now, I want you to try to reach out and wind all of the loose magic into the core. It's easier to control your magic if its already in one place." Breathing deeply, they all concentrated, Mel with a small frown on her face and Harry with a furrowed brow.

"Professor!" Draco whispered after a minute or two. "I can't see any loose magic! What's wrong?"

"Really? Are you sure? Well there's nothing wrong, dear boy." Dumbledore looked slightly surprised but rather pleased. "Well…Aaliyah did tell us you have the most control…I suppose we should just move on to the second stage, which is letting out small amounts of magic and controlling them, then taking it back in. You must have extensive control, Mr. Malfoy. I expect Maxx also will be joining you in a short while. The two of you have very good control. It will be essential in holding this group together. Alright well go ahead, I will get your attention in an hour or so.

Ten minutes later, the rest of them were still meditating when soft music began to float through the air. All of them cracked open an eye and saw Maxx was the only one still mediating.

"Maxx!" Mel whispered. "Keep it down!"

Opening his eyes, he grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I heard Draco talking to you, Professor, and moved onto the second stage. It's just kinda hard to keep in my Singer magic and my regular magic. I'll try putting up a barrier or something."

After an hour had passed, Dumbledore told them to stop and introduced them to their physical trainer, who had arrived while they were meditating.

"This, boys and girls, is Professor Astrix. He is an elf who offered to train you, since your physical training is beyond the knowledge of any human here at Hogwarts. We would have hardly anything to teach you. Professor Astrix is here to be certain you all are as strong as possible, physically. This will be your routine everyday. You will come here first thing in the morning to meditate, then go through two hours of physical training, then go to your regular classes. After a few weeks you will be allowed to use your powers, depending on when you all get to the second stage of meditation. When this occurs, you will have another professor to meet here after school for magical training. You will still need to come here every morning for meditation. It is important to keep control. I will leave you now. Good luck!" and he wandered off towards the door, skipping every once in a while. The children watched him go, and then turned to their new professor.

He smiled at them and cleared his throat. "Well. Isn't he just one of the most interesting men I have ever had the pleasure to meet."

They all laughed, immediately at ease with this easygoing man.

"Let's begin then. We'll start with stretching exercises, and then some tests to see where you all are."

The eight teens soon learned their professor was not as easygoing when it came to their actual training. He trained them hard, and pushed them to their limits. To his credit, thought, he was very fair and made training fun by letting them have contests every once in a while or playing games that required physical and mental strength. In this way they learned battle tactics and how to defend themselves.

Out of the eight of them, Draco and Maxx were the most controlled. Everyone but Mel and Harry had reached the second stage by the end of the week. Aaron, Maxx and Mel seemed to be the most athletic, and Harry was the best at battle plans. Hermione and Blaise knew things from books and so were the most intellectual. Julia knew what was going to happen because of her ability to See, so she was a valuable asset when it came to knowing the enemies plan. Sometime they had mock battles with two teams. The teams varied and everyone was a good sport whether they won or lost.

One day during meditation lessons, Harry made it to the second stage. Mel had become increasingly more frustrated with each lesson, and once she was the only one left, she exploded.

"This is ridiculous! I can't do this! Why am I the only one who can't control my magic?" she ranted, unaware that clouds were gathering in the ceiling that mirrored the sky outside. A wind began to blow. "This is so stupid!" she glared at nothing in particular, sitting with her arms crossed. Blue and green magic was leaking off of her body and creating a low, unhappy tune, but she didn't notice. Her friends didn't know what to do, and Dumbledore looked as if he was just as uncertain.

"Mel," he began. "Sometimes it's harder for the people with the strongest magic to control themselves. That's why you and Harry took so long. Draco and Maxx are exceptions since they already have emotional control, but you and Harry wear your hearts on your sleeves most of the time."

This speech slightly eased the steady wind, but suddenly it picked up again when Mel thought _Then why did Harry get there before me?_

No one knew what to do. Maxx finally scooted closer to her and motioned for Draco to help him.

"Mel come on its fine." Maxx started trying to calm her down, while working with Draco to use their own magics to push hers back into her. "Nobody minds waiting." At these words she uncrossed her arms and looked hopefully at him. "Don't be embarrassed that you can't do it. You'll get it eventually." He whispered so no one else could hear. Her eyes widened. How did he know she was embarrassed and that was why she was getting angry? The wind and unhappy music finally stopped and the clouds cleared at the same time Draco and Maxx finished pushing the magic back into her.

"Thanks guys." She sighed. "Sorry I got so frustrated, it's just that you all can do it and I can't."

"It's ok." Julia told her cheerfully. "Try it again!"

"Ok…" Mel closed her eyes and sank into her core, as she had done so many times before. She searched around until she found all the loose magic. Then she tried to remember what it had felt like when Maxx and Draco had been pushing her magic back in. She focused on that feeling, and then slowly pulled the magic in. Finally she opened her eyes.

"I did it!" she said excitedly, narrowing her eyes at Julia. "You knew I would do it." She accused with a smile.

They all smiled back at her. "Finally!" Blaise teased. "Ow!" he rubbed his arm while glaring at Hermione, who glared back.

"We can all move on to the third stage now, right professor?" Aaron turned to look at the old man who looked rather relieved that there was no longer an angry teenager with magic more powerful than his.

"Yes. You all achieved the second level faster than I anticipated." His eyes twinkled maddeningly at them from behind his spectacles. I will come up with some tests to see how you have learned control. Until I return you may train with Professor Astrix."

They worked for what seemed like hours on their physical training until finally Dumbledore came back, looking excited. "Alright, so I have devised some tests to make sure you can all control your magic, and then your magical training teacher will arrive to teach you the more complex stuff. So who's first?"

Hermione, of course, was the first one to volunteer, with her superior hand-raising skills. She stepped toward the professor and stood there expectantly.

"The first thing I am going to do is remove the barriers I have placed between the eight of you. I know you didn't know you had them there, but I felt it necessary to block your thoughts from each other until you had all some control over your thoughts. Ready?" they all felt a weight lifted from their shoulders and suddenly thoughts were pouring in from all of them. "Put up your own blocks, quickly now!" They each put up their own mind blocks and found they could now choose whom to let in and when. "I would not suggest using this power unless you have to. It can be confusing to have another voice inside one's head. Now Ms. Granger, I want to work with your elemental control first and then your healing powers. Would you please try to stir up a breeze? This will not be as easy as it would be for the others since you only have a bit of elemental control."

Hermione concentrated for several minutes, and nothing happened.

"Alright, that's ok. Let's try something else. Try to grow a piece of grass longer than the rest around it."

After another minute's concentration on the grass, nothing happened once again. Dumbledore tried one more test with water but nothing happened again.

"That's quite alright my dear. I wasn't expecting anything yet, I just wanted to make sure your power doesn't break loose when you try to use it." He told Hermione kindly, who was exhausted and near tears from concentrating and having nothing to show for it.

He tried the same tests with all of the teens. Most of them couldn't do anything, although Mel managed a small breeze and Harry could grow the grass as tall as he wanted it. Draco also made a little ball of water float over to them from the pond. Aaron, Blaise, and Maxx couldn't make anything happen either. Maxx and Mel did seem to have full control over their Singer powers, though, after days of meditation. Dumbledore said it was because Singer powers built within a person and were released when they turned sixteen, so they had probably been able to sing and dance well their whole lives, and now only had to learn how to incorporate their magic into it. Mel sang a lovely song that made everyone cry, which she had made up on the spot, and Maxx, nervous about singing in front of all the guys, hummed a low song that had everybody full of energy and alert.

"How interesting. I believe those were emotion and physical songs. That could be useful." Dumbledore mused. "Can you create any other songs?"

After several songs, Dumbledore finally told the other six they could go back into the castle, and he would work with the Singers by themselves. The two, once everyone was gone, sang songs that caused pain, healed, gave energy and strength, made Dumbledore fall asleep, and all sorts of songs. Eventually they tried a duet, which had Dumbledore on his feet, clapping madly while wiping his eyes from the beautiful melody. The last thing they tried was creating music while singing. It worked perfectly and they finally went inside, not too happy about their other magical progress, but content that they had mastered their musical abilities.

All eight went to bed early that night, exhausted from all the work and rather frustrated with what little progress they had all made.


	8. Don't Let Them Take Me

**A/N **Wow I have really been busy. It's crazy. My parents suck. And midterms are this week. But I don't care because I haven't written any of my story since December 23rd and I have to write something. So here I am writing instead of studying for history or something. Anyways I got the 8th chapter done (and actually like 3 more chapters too but I don't have time to type them) and now I'm going to type at least one chapter and I'm not stopping until I finish it.

_Last time_

"How interesting. I believe those were emotion and physical songs. That could be useful." Dumbledore mused. "Can you create any other songs?"

After several songs, Dumbledore finally told the other six they could go back into the castle, and he would work with the Singers by themselves. The two, once everyone was gone, sang songs that caused pain, healed, gave energy and strength, made Dumbledore fall asleep, and all sorts of songs. Eventually they tried a duet, which had Dumbledore on his feet, clapping madly while wiping his eyes from the beautiful melody. The last thing they tried was creating music while singing. It worked perfectly and they finally went inside, not too happy about their other magical progress, but content that they had mastered their musical abilities.

All eight went to bed early that night, exhausted from all the work and rather frustrated with what little progress they had all made.

Chapter 8: Don't Let Them Take Me

"Uhhhhh," was Mel's response to Hermione opening her door unceremoniously and noisily crossed the room to open her curtains and let sunlight flood the room.

"Come on lazy, get up! It's nearly noon and even Julia is already up."

"Go 'way, Mione" Mel mumbled unenthusiastically. "So sleepy…"

"No. You have to get up. School starts tomorrow and none of us have supplies yet. We're going to Diagon Alley as soon as Aaron wakes Maxx up." Hermione flung the covers off her friend and started to drag her out of bed.

Finally waking up a little, Mel swatted her hands away and sat up. "He's not awake yet? That's weird. He's usually up earlier than everybody else."

"Yah I think that all the extra Singing made you guys pretty tired. How come you two usually get up so early?"

"I guess we're just used to it."

"What do you mean?"

Shifting uncomfortably on the bed, Mel shrugged. "At home, our parents are…kind of ambitious. We both get a lot of pressure to do really good at school and stuff."

"That sucks." Hermione sympathized. "At least you can get some peace and quiet in your room."

"Not really. My dad took my door away when he found out I was listening to rap music." Mel rolled her eyes.

"What? That's horrible!" Hermione said, shocked.

"It wasn't that bad. The worst it got was when my dad got drunk and threw me into the Hole." Mel shuddered, her eyes going blank at the memory. "It was so bad in there." She whispered. "If I didn't get straight 100's at school, they put me in there. They bought it from a wizard friend. It's like having Dementors around you constantly. I relived every failure in my life. There was no food, no water. Usually I could bear it, because my parents only left me there for a day or so. But that time my dad was drunk and he forgot I was there for a month. He never gets drunk," tears brimmed in her eyes as she looked at one of her best friends. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to tell you that."

"Oh my god." Hermione whispered, her hand at her mouth. "Mel…don't be sorry. It's not your fault." She gave her friend a hug. "How did you deal with it?"

"Well, I told Maxx about it one time, and he helped me get over it by giving me CDs and making me laugh and stuff. We couldn't tell anyone because no one we knew, except at school, was a wizard, and no one at school would have believed us because our families seemed so normal. Maxx had something like the Hole too, but he was never there for more than a week. But it's ok. I'm here now, and I'm never going back." She said fiercely.

"Yah. You have us now." Hermione got up after one last hug. "And you're not going anywhere if we can help it" Hermione said as she dug around in some drawers looking for something for Mel to wear. "How about these?" she asked, holding up a pair of faded capris and some blue and black striped leggings to wear underneath.

"Mmm sure." Mel stretched and stood up. "Merlin I'm hungry. Let's go get some food."

A while later, after Maxx and Mel listened to some music to give them some energy, they all headed to the Great Hall, where they sat down at the Slytherin table, ignoring the glares they got in favor of speaking with Draco and Blaise. They were halfway into arguing about who their professor would be for their magical training when an owl swooped down to land in front of Mel, a red envelope clutched in its talons.

"Oh no." Mel whispered as she put down her fork and reached out to take the Howler. She opened it gingerly, not wanting it to explode in front of everyone. Everyone stopped and stared anyway. They all knew Mel as one of the most beautiful girls in school and as the girl who got perfect grades, except for History of Magic, which everyone, even Hermione the school know-it-all, thought was boring. Why on earth would she have a Howler? What could she possibly have done? Surely her parents were proud of her… All the thoughts in the Great Hall were stopped as Mel's mother's clear voice resounded throughout the room.

"MELODIA ELIZABETH MARTINI! WHAT IS THIS I HEAR ABOUT YOU NOT GETTING STRAIGHT A'S?!" Mel glared at the letter dancing in front of her face. A small breeze began to blow. "YOUR FATHER AND I ARE EXREMELY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU! AND WE HAD TO HEAR IT, NOT FROM YOU, BUT FROM THE NEWSPAPER! THE NEWSPAPER, MELODIA! WHAT KIND OF SCHOOL IS HOGWARTS THAT YOU DO NOT PAY ATTENTION IN YOUR CLASSES? FROM NOW ON, I FORBID YOU TO TALK TO ANYONE EXCEPT TEACHERS AND A TUTOR! AS SOON AS POSSIBLE WE WILL BE TRANSFERRING YOU TO A MUGGLE BOARDING SCHOOL SO YOU CAN FOCUS ON YOUR STUDIES AND NOT SOME SILLY OLD MAGIC TRICKS! I CANT BELIEVE YOU! THE SHAME OF HAVING SUCH A DAUGHTER! WE WILL SEND SOMEONE TO TAKE YOU HOME WITHIN THE WEEK!" as the last syllable echoed through the shocked silence, the letter tore itself into shreds, which immediately blew across the room in a steady wind. Mel was sitting straight up, her eyes a glowing swirl of blue and green. She stared straight ahead, obviously angry as all hell and maybe even a little scared.

"No," she whispered "They can't take me away. I won't let them."

The double doors to the Great Hall shuddered and then burst open, letting in a wind that fiercely blew everything around. Goblets, plates, and utensils were lifted up off the heavy tables. The wind gathered into an unstoppable force, causing the huge tables to skid across the floor. People shrieked and screamed, flattening themselves against the floor trying to escape the unyielding wind.

All except Mel and her friends. The other seven mages had created wind-resistant barriers and took slow steps trying to get through the wind to their upset friend. Maxx got there first. He lunged forward and laid a hand on her shoulder. She didn't respond. Hermione saw Julia about to reach her and told the others, "No! Let them be! I think they have to work this out on their own."

"Mel!" Maxx shouted, trying to be heard over the howling wind. "You've got to calm down! You're going to hurt somebody!" he struggled to sit down next to her. He took her face in his hand and got her to look at him.

She relented slightly when she saw his face, with his icy blue eyes asking her to calm down.

"Don't let them take me away," she pleaded.

The anger and fear he saw in her eyes made him want to kill anyone who wanted to hurt her. This time, they weren't gonna get her.

"No," he said reverently. "No I won't let them this time." And he wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. She sagged against him, not crying, but marveling at the fact that she believed him. She knew he wouldn't let them bring her home. She trusted her friend completely.

As they sat there, the wind died down slowly, blowing thinks back to where they were before speeding back out the doors. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and returned to their seats, staring with slight fear at the two teens still embracing each other. They hadn't known that the sudden changes in appearance of the eight students (they had stopped using glamours shortly after they had begun their training) had come with magical strength as well. After a while the students noticed none of the teachers looked worried and most of them began to accept the change.

"Ahem."

Maxx and Mel turned around to see their other friends smirking at them. They quickly let go of each other and blushed.

The mages sat back down and looked around reluctantly. They soon saw that most of their friends were looking at them with a new kind of respect.

"Soooo," Dumbledore began with his famous twinkle-in-the-eye expression. "I suppose you are all wondering what that was."

The students laughed uneasily as the old man explained to them how the school had gained eight powerful mages. By the end of the speech, most of the kids were watching them with awe and murmuring to their friends.

"Cool," somebody whispered, "We'll definitely win the war now."

"Well! That's enough talking for now!" Dumbledore said after everybody quieted down. "We're wasting daylight here! The trip to Diagon Alley starts at 2, so everybody get everything they need and meet the teachers in the courtyard. Don't forget, tomorrow school starts!" he said to a general groan. "For those of you who waited until last minute to get their supplies," he looked at several people who were avoiding his eyes, including the group sitting conspicuously at the Slytherin table, and chuckled lightly, "This is your last chance to get what you need. If you've lost your school supplies list, Professor McGonagall has some extras. Now off you go!"

At precisely 2pm all the students third year and above that were going to Diagon Alley were assembled in the courtyard ready to go.

On the way there, they discussed where they were going first. The guys wanted to go to the Quidditch supplies store but Hermione insisted they get everything they really needed first.

"Quidditch?" Mel questioned.

"You've never heard of Quidditch?" Draco looked shocked.

"It's the best wizarding sport ever." Harry said earnestly.

"No, we never had any good wizarding sports at our school." Julia said." Not that it would matter. I'm not a sports person."

Aaron snorted. "Wonder why." He mimed her tripping over nothing.

"Haha, you're a comic genius." Julia said dryly.

"So what exactly is it?" Mel asked, still curious.

"Basically you fly around on brooms looking stupid." Blaise said, just to get on Draco and Harry's nerves. He was rewarded with two pairs of eyes glaring at him.

"Blaise…" Hermione said warningly. "Quidditch is a sport which is played on brooms. There are three Chasers, two Beaters, a Keeper, and a Seeker. The Chasers throw a ball called the Quaffle around to try to score in one of three hoops, protected by the Keeper. The Beaters keep a ball called the Bludger from injuring any of the players on their team. The Seeker tries to catch the Snitch, which ends the game. I'm sure there will be tryouts soon. We can go watch if you want."

"Watch? I'm gonna try out." Aaron said, obviously sure he was going to get a spot on the team.

"I'm just warning you, this sport will be different than any sport you've played before." Harry told him. "You might not be good right away. You'll probably have to practice."

"Whatever." He sniffed.

Julia smacked him. "Sometimes you can be so…so arrogant."

"Guys, let's just focus on school stuff and then we can talk about Quidditch." Hermione, always the voice of reason, laughed at Draco and Harry's pouting faces before herding them all into Flourish and Blotts for quills and such.

Two hours later, they were finally done.

"Let's go back now." Blaise groaned.

"How about some butterbeer before we leave?" Harry suggested.

"Ok, fine." Hermione relented.

They made their way back to the castle, bottles of butterbeer clutched tightly in their hands.

Dumbledore met them at the doors to Hogwarts to tell them they wouldn't have their special lessons today because it was the last day before school started but tomorrow morning they would have to be at the Room of Secrets by 7 for meditation and their first normal classes would start at eight along with everyone else.

"Don't worry about breakfast." He said mysteriously.

They all went back to the dorm and relaxed for a while. At 10:30 Hermione told them they had to go to sleep or she was waking them up at 4:30 the next morning.

At 6:30 Maxx and Mel woke up and decided to wake the others up gently. They hummed a low note, then went into a song that would wake everyone up. The music started out slow and escalated to a song that would give them all some positive energy.

"I could get used to waking up that way every morning." Julia said contently.

"Me too. Everybody ready for meditation?"

They all went down to the Room of Secrets in a good mood, to find Dumbledore sitting there with a figure in a hooded cloak.

**A/N** YES!!! I finished a chapter. Man, this chapter did not want to be written or something cuz I had some major writer's block. Anyway you should be happy to know (if you like my story, that is) that the 9th chapter will be up in a few days! Well I have to go, my friend's mom just made fresh bread and I'm at her house writing this on my laptop. Mmmmm it smells soooooooo good. Adios! Pleeeeeease review…


	9. Resolving Conflicts

**A/N **Ok so I lied its not a couple days after I posted chapter 8, but im sure you don't really wanna hear the excuses, so go ahead and read. This chapter has some clues to the later chapters I am writing, and I have started chapter 10 and a little bit of 11. I really, really hope I get those up soon. 'til then, hope you like it, and please review, because I am not going to post this anymore unless I get some more reviews. And for those of you waiting for some real romance and maybe a bit of something else (you know what I mean) you'll just have to wait. Don't worry, it won't be too long. I think.

_Last time…_

They made their way back to the castle, bottles of butterbeer clutched tightly in their hands.

Dumbledore met them at the doors to Hogwarts to tell them they wouldn't have their special lessons today because it was the last day before school started but tomorrow morning they would have to be at the Room of Secrets by 7 for meditation and their first normal classes would start at eight along with everyone else.

"Don't worry about breakfast." He said mysteriously.

They all went back to the dorm and relaxed for a while. At 10:30 Hermione told them they had to go to sleep or she was waking them up at 4:30 the next morning.

At 6:30 Maxx and Mel woke up and decided to wake the others up gently. They hummed a low note, then went into a song that would wake everyone up. The music started out slow and escalated to a song that would give them all some positive energy.

"I could get used to waking up that way every morning." Julia said contently.

"Me too. Everybody ready for meditation?"

They all went down to the Room of Secrets in a good mood, to find Dumbledore sitting there with a figure in a hooded cloak.

Chapter Nine: Resolving Conflicts

"Hello children," their professor greeted them with a smile on his face. "Pay no attention to our guest here. This is your new teacher but you will be introduced later. _La faelle cras ni hal me." _he murmured to the figure, bowing respectfully. The figure turned around and then was gone. No sudden pop, no miraculous exit, just…gone. "Ready to get to work? Alright, begin…"

At the end of their lesson the teens finally got the chance to ask about their teacher.

"Who is he?"

"What's his name?"

"Is he an elf? Was that the elvin language? Are we going to learn it?"

"How did he disappear like that?"

"Now, now children, that's enough. You will find out later. Right now, you must go to breakfast or else miss your morning meal. Most important meal of the day, you know." And he skipped off before any of them could say another word.

Still curious, they trudged up to the Great Hall for breakfast, where Blaise and Draco left for the Slytherin table.

"See ya in double Potions!" Draco called over his shoulder, smirking at Harry's expression.

"Uhhhh," they all groaned.

Breakfast passed quickly and before they knew it, they were sitting in the dark, damp dungeons of Professor Snape's classroom, waiting for their greasy-haired teacher. Minutes later, said teacher burst into the room with his normal dramatic entrance. Harry rolled his eyes.

"He should really think of trying a variety of dramatic entrances instead of the same old, 'burst through doors into dark room with black robes swirling' ya know?" he whispered to Julia, who was sitting next to him. She giggled behind her hand and quickly put an innocent smile on her face when Snape whipped around to glare at her.

"Today, class," he began, writing briskly on the chalkboard, "we will be brewing a very difficult potion, to see where we all are this year. I thought we would try…Veritaserum." He smirked, looking at Harry. "And I will be choosing partners." He finished, efficiently stopping the looks being exchanged between best friends who assumed they would partner together. "Let's see here…" they could practically see the wheels turning in his head, trying to put together the worst possible partners to cause as much distress and misery amongst his students as he could.

Harry and Draco hid their smiles when they realized Snape didn't know they were friends now, and would probably put them together. Of course all the other teachers knew, but Snape, being the unobservant bastard he was, hadn't noticed (as obvious as it was, since they spent all their time together with their other friends now).

Sure enough, a moment later, "Potter and Malfoy, Granger and Zabini..." he faltered for a moment, not knowing anyone else's last names. Everyone chuckled, ignoring his glare. Finally, he awkwardly said, "Err, Miss Melodia and…errr… Mister Aaron, Miss Julia and Mister Lang" he named an evil-looking boy from Slytherin sitting across the room from her, "Mister Longbottom and Mister Maxx," and he continued pairing off everyone until everyone had a partner and was sitting with them. At this point he waved his wand and directions to brewing Veritaserum appeared on the board.

"Just so that you are aware, I will be testing these, so do well." Snape returned to his desk with a smirk. "Well, what are you waiting for? Begin!"

About ten minutes into the class, everyone was doing well, until the boy Julia was partnered with, Simon Lang, tried to pour diluted basilisk spit down her shirt. One minute he was chuckling to himself at his victory and the next second he was hanging upside down with one ankle hanging in the air, as if a giant hand had picked him up and was dangling him in midair. Julia stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at him. She blinked her green and white speckled eyes and the basilisk spit vanished instantly. Distant thunder rolled somewhere far off, and she spoke to him.

"What the hell Lang!"

"Ohhh," someone said lightly, probably Mel. "He picked the wrong girl to mess with."

Everyone stared as the girl in the middle of the room lectured the Slytherin hanging in the air. Snape sat at his desk with his mouth hanging open, too shocked to do anything. Meanwhile, Julia asked Simon if he had learned his lesson yet. When all he said was, "Get me the bloody hell down!" she smirked quite evilly and spun her finger around a bit. Simon spun with it. Soon he was spinning steadily in the air yelling, "Ahhhh!!! Ok, ok, I'm sorry!"

"Miss Julia! This is quite inappropriate! Put him down this instant!" Snape seemed to have collected his wits by then.

Looking slightly disappointed, Julia stopped spinning her finger and pointed down. Simon fell onto the floor n an undignified heap. Everyone was laughing hysterically. Aaron was on the floor with tears streaming down his face.

"You're crazy!" gasped Simon.

"Excuse me?" Julia asked sweetly. "Do we need another lecture?"

"No, no," he said hurriedly. "It's fine. I get it."

"That's what I thought."

"Miss Julia," Snape said sternly.

"Oh my god. Is he trying not to smile?" Hermione asked Blaise.

"You'd be surprised," he whispered in her ear, making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "The old git does have a sense of humor sometimes. He just has a reputation to keep up ya know?"

"I'm going to have to take away points. I think ten will do." Snape said reluctantly, as if he didn't want to take away any points at all.

"Ten?" Simon said incredulously. "That's all?"

"Yes mister Lang. Ten is plenty." He said firmly. "As for your little stunt, I believe a detention with me tonight at eight should help you learn your lesson. If this girl here hasn't already finished the job for me, that is."

Everyone let out a final snicker as Simon spluttered, then sat back in his seat, defeated.

The rest of the day went by slowly, just like every other first day of school does, but by dinner time, the eight mages were still snickering whenever they saw Simon pass by with his cronies.

Dinner was slightly ruined when Mel got an owl saying someone would be at Hogwarts on Friday to pick her up and bring her home, but Maxx just flicked his hand without even looking up from his plate of chicken and the letter burst into flames. Then he did look up, and smiled reassuringly at Mel. Everyone relaxed again, and dug into their delicious meal.

After dinner they made their way back to the Room of Secrets, eager to meet their new teacher. When they arrived they saw no one but the figure in the hooded cloak standing in the field. They cautiously approached their new teacher and waited patiently for them to speak. Well, most of them waited patiently.

"This is a waste of time. Are you going to teach us something or not?" Draco complained after a few seconds' silence.

The stranger made a sound like a snort of amusement and lifted a hand to remove their hood.

"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, surprised.

Their teacher smiled and reached up to brush back a long lock of fiery red hair. "Hello. I'm your new teacher, Kenna Saranyu. I am a fire elf."

The reason they were all so shocked was because their new teacher…was a woman. A tall, red-headed, elvin woman. For some reason they had all assumed their magical trainer would be a male.

"Excuse me Professor Saranyu, but doesn't Kenna mean 'finely made'?" Hermione asked. "I thought all fire elves were named for their element."

"We are." Kenna smiled wider. "And call me Kenna. I'm too young for this 'Professor" stuff. It also means 'born of fire' and my last name means 'goddess of dawn'."

"Wow. Extravagant enough?" Blaise commented.

"My father is head of the Council of Elves. Everyone in the Council names their children extravagantly." Kenna laughed. "But enough of this. I am here to teach you how to use your new powers. We have a lot to do."

"That's an understatement," Mel said dryly.

Kenna laughed again. "Don't worry. You'll be able to control your powers in no time. Now, Dumbledore told me where each of you are in developing your powers. I would like to give each of you some exercises to perform, and work with those of you who need the most help while the rest of you do the exercises."

"Wonder who she could be talking about," Aaron snorted sarcastically.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mel looked hurt.

"Well we all know you suck at controlling your magic," he laughed.

"Aaron, shut up!" Julia shoved him. "It's not her fault."

"Thanks Julia. But I guess I needed to hear that," she looked at Aaron. "Now we all know how he really feels." She walked towards the pond, small winds whipping around her, tossing her long hair in the air. The ceiling rolled with gray, fluffy clouds.

"Mel wait," Aaron started after her.

"No! Go away! All you can think about is yourself!" she broke into a run.

"Oh come on Mel, do you really think you can run faster than me?" he ran after her.

"Umph!" he stopped when he ran into her. "What the hell Mel?"

"Let's have a race, then, Mr. Ego," she challenged. "See who's really faster."

"Fine! Let's go." He replied confidently.

"Guys, this is stupid," Harry tried to tell them.

"No Harry! I have to do this."

"Let her do it," Maxx told him. "She needs to prove herself."

"To who?" Draco asked.

"She thinks she's not as good as us because she can't control her magic." Maxx watched her line up with Aaron and get ready to start.

"That's ridiculous!" Kenna said.

"I know." Julia said sadly. "They're both so competitive."

"Go!"

Aaron and Mel raced across the field, speeding faster than any normal human could. Aaron quickly pulled ahead, a smile stretching across his face. Suddenly Mel leaped forward, her long legs gracefully flying across the soft grass. She flashed a smirk in Aaron's direction and took the lead. By the time he reached the finish line, she was already standing there, hardly even breathing heavy. Everyone ran over to them.

"She must have cheated!" Aaron protested.

"I can't believe you!" Mel swept her hair into a ponytail and off her sweaty neck. "I finally beat you fair and square at something, and you think I cheated! I thought we could at least be friends, but obviously you're not willing to try!"

Maxx looked nervously at his tall friend. If Aaron and Mel wouldn't go near each other anymore, he would end up having to choose who he wanted to hang out with, and he wasn't sure he could do that.

Mel stared at Aaron waiting for a response. When he refused to meet her eyes, her eyes filled with tears and she turned around to walk away.

Aaron watched her go. He did want to be her friend, but his pride wouldn't let him give in.

Smack! Aaron stumbled back from the force of Julia's slap. "You moron! You can't even forget your pride for one second to tell one of your closest friends that she won, and that you admire her for being able to control such a power and even beat you at a race, which is no easy thing to do!"

Aaron blinked. "Mel! Wait!"

She didn't even falter in her step.

He hesitated. Then he saw everyone staring at him, and he realized he was about to lose one of the best friends he would ever have because of his pride. "I'm sorry!" he finally yelled.

She stopped, then turned slowly back around. The wind blew the wetness on her cheeks dry, and she smiled. She walked back and stood directly in front of him.

"Forgive me?" Aaron pleaded. "I just don't like it when people beat me. It doesn't happen that often," he tried to joke.

"Well. You should be sorry, you jerk." She said stiffly.

Aaron grimaced. "I guess I deserve that."

"Yah. But…you're forgiven," she smiled. "I know how hard it is for you to apologize."

As the two awkwardly hugged, everyone cheered. Maxx and Julia looked especially happy and relieved. It was obvious to the others originally from Hogwarts that this competition had been going on for a long time between the two.

Aaron blushed when they separated. "I am so never apologizing in my life." He said with a shudder. "That was awful."

Julia laughed. "Don't make me slap you again."

He cringed. "No, thanks." He said, making everyone laugh.

"Well now that that's all settled, can we please learn something now?" Draco began to complain when Harry interrupted.

"Shut up, you prat. I saw your eyes 'watering' when they were hugging," Harry teased.

Draco shifted uncomfortably. "It was the-"

"Wind? I don't think so, my dear Draco. I have heard that excuse too many times," Blaise turned to Kendra. "Can we get started now?"

She laughed, a bell-like sound in the silence of the meadow. "Of course. I can see I have a lot to teach you all."

"I guess we all have something to learn," Hermione commented.

"Even me," Aaron agreed.

"Yah. We're like a…an octet of mages." Julia added.

"What does that have to do with it?" Harry asked.

"Ahhh. I see we have a Seer in our midst. A Mage Octet is said to be a famous group of eight wizards and witches hundreds of years ago that secretly studied the ancient mage arts." Kenna informed them. "It was prophesied that someday a real Mage Octet would come and beat the darkest wizard of all times.

'Then that's what we are," Draco said proudly. "The Mage Octet."

They all nodded and waited for their teacher to finally begin teaching them the secret ways of the mages.


	10. How the Hell Do We Fix This?

**A/N **OK I hope this chapter is good…please review and tell me. Thanks to all of you who already reviewed! Very sorry for the huge wait…

_Last time…_

_Mel beat Aaron in a race which made their friendship a bit stronger and then…_

"I guess we all have something to learn," Hermione commented.

"Even me," Aaron agreed.

"Yah. We're like a…an octet of mages." Julia added.

"What does that have to do with it?" Harry asked.

"Ahhh. I see we have a Seer in our midst. A Mage Octet is said to be a famous group of eight wizards and witches hundreds of years ago that secretly studied the ancient mage arts." Kenna informed them. "It was prophesied that someday a real Mage Octet would come and beat the darkest wizard of all times.

'Then that's what we are," Draco said proudly. "The Mage Octet."

They all nodded and waited for their teacher to finally begin teaching them the secret ways of the mages.

Chapter Ten: How the Hell Do We Fix This?

"We're going to start small," Kenna said. "Once you get a hold of your powers we can learn more complicated things such as teleportation. First, I want to try out your powers again. It seems you all have encountered some sort of…barrier that is preventing you from controlling or using your powers."

"So what can we do about it?" Hermione's eyebrows furrowed together as they always did when she was trying to figure out a problem."

"Well I want to try something I call mind probing. What you need to do is open your minds, sort of the opposite of meditating. Be careful to not lose control. Then I just want to take a quick look into your magical aura to see if I can find what's wrong. I can't look directly into your core, but the aura should be enough to tell me if there's something blocking the usage of power."

"Why can't you look into our core?" Blaise asked.

"Technically, I could. And I would, except for looking into another mage's magical core is strictly forbidden in my world, and it's an extremely intimate thing. To do such a thing I would have to be your soul mate or an extremely powerful mage with no feelings. When entering another person's magical core, you get an intense feeling of rightness, but when entering without permission the core will push out a very powerful wave of magic in an attempt to rid itself of the intrusion. As I am fairly certain I am not the soul mate of anybody here, I will not be trying this. So please close your eyes and I will see if I can locate the source of trouble."

Sighing, they obeyed.

"Ok relax…let your mind open…I'm just gonna take a quick look."

Kenna gasped softly when the eight young mages closed their eyes and let their auras surround them. Each aura was a different color and they blended together at the edges. She searched for any sign of abnormality but there was nothing. They looked completely normal, nothing obstructing the soft glow they gave off except for the glow from each other's magic. She stepped closer, and suddenly she knew. That was exactly it; they shouldn't be blending together like that. But how to fix it…

"I've got it!" Kenna cried.

Draco cracked an eye open. "Got what?"

"I know what's wrong! You all came into your inheritances within months of each other, right?"

Opening their eyes, they nodded.

"So what?" Harry raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to one side with a confused expression in his bright green eyes.

"Well this hasn't ever happened before, but what I was thinking was this caused your magical auras to blend in with each other. Magic is like a magnet, it's attracted to itself, usually only when it's very strong and in very concentrated amounts. Clearly, when you got your inheritances, you became much more powerful, and the auras were attracted to one another. I think this is what is blocking you from fully controlling your powers." Kenna finished triumphantly.

"That's great! But…how do we fix it?" Maxx wondered.

"Well, the only way to fix it is to counter it with more power, and try to separate them. But the thing is, none of you can use any of your powers except for regular spells with wands, right?"

"Actually, Maxx and Mel can use their Singer powers," Aaron informed her.

"Yah but how's that gonna help?" Julia asked.

"They could try and make up a song-spell to fix it." Hermione suggested.

"That might work," Kenna admitted. "Try it!"

"What if it doesn't work?" Mel asked anxiously.

"It has to." Julia told them.

"Shut up miss-know-the-future," muttered Aaron to Julia, who threw him a glare.

"Ok we'll try it, but I'm not sure we'll be able to come up with the right words right away, maybe even do one without words, like a..." Maxx rubbed his temples, thinking deeply.

"Just a melody?" Mel cracked a smile.

"Try holding hands," said Julia wisely.

"W-what?" asked Mel nervously.

"So you can communicate better," she reassured her friend.

"Oh…oh ok sure."

They closed their eyes and grasped hands. Harry fought back a grin when he saw them blushing. The rest of them could see they were communicating through their Singer magic. Finally Maxx cleared his throat and slow music filled the air. He hummed the first note in his low, clear voice. The music began slow and soft, then rose in pitch. When it reached the high note Mel joined him, creating a harmony far more advanced than any of them had ever heard before. The seven of them stood entranced by the melodious music that seemed to fill the air and the notes seemed to hang in the air like the scent of a spring rain, almost taking on a physical form.

And as they sang, their auras pulsated in time to the music. With each pulse the auras seemed to withdraw from each other and surround their respective mages in a more concentrated form. The song ended in a single, solid note that echoed and became louder, then faded. When they finished, the auras exploded in a burst of light, reaching to the edges of the clearing and causing everyone to shield their eyes, then retracted to hover brightly around the mage they belonged to. They faded with the last note and Mel and Maxx opened their eyes. Silence reigned for a moment until finally Draco spoke.

"Did it work?"

"Well there's only one way to find out." Kenna smiled. "One thing's for sure, _something _happened."

"You mean, we should try to use our powers again?" Harry asked excitedly.

"That's exactly what I mean." She answered, still smiling. "Go ahead. But one at a time," she warned. "Too big of a power surge at once could trigger the warning system of the castle."

"Uhhh," Aaron interrupted. "You guys don't have to hold hands anymore, you know." He teased, making the two Singers, who had been standing contently hand in hand up until that moment, jump apart and making Mel blush.

"Shut up," the bronze-haired boy mumbled. "We forgot…" he trailed off uncertainly.

"Everyone shut the bloody hell up and do something already." Draco ordered impatiently.

"Bastard."

"I heard that, Harry."

"So who's going first?" Hermione with an exasperated glare at her best friend and the annoying blond.

"Me! Me!" Julia unashamedly jumped up and down excitedly. Aaron looked with disgust at this show of excitement.

"Very well. Perhaps it was would be best to start with your Animagus form, since most of your other power lies in Seeing or in thunderstorms, and we don't want any of that." Kenna suggested.

Julia grinned and shut her eyes. A serious look fell over her normally smiling face and a silver glow brightened the air. Everyone watched as the silver light completely enveloped Julia and faded. Hermione gasped as they saw in her place a smaller version of a horse, white with intelligent green eyes dotted with white. A green horn spiraled up out of the unicorn's forehead, paler than the green of the underside of a newly grown leaf.

"Cool!" Harry exclaimed.

The magical creature stood before them, one hoof raised. Suddenly she shook her mane and looked at them all with an evil glint in her eyes.

"Uh-oh," Mel said. "That's not good."

"What? What's not good?" Draco panicked.

"I think she's gonna try and chase one of us. Whatever you do, don't run away."

"She's still just Julia, you guys. She'll probably trip and fall." Blaise snickered.

"Oh boy," Mel muttered.

"Aaaahh!" Blaise yelled as he ran, arms flailing, from the graceful creature that was Julia in her unicorn form.

"Hahahahaha!" the rest of them gasped for breath as they laughed hysterically. Even normally cool and composed Draco chuckled a bit.

Blaise ran, sweating and out of breath. He glanced behind him to see how close Julia was, and saw nothing. He slowed down and thought to himself, **'ha, I guess I outran her with my cool new speed-AH!'**

"AH!" he practically screamed (which he would later deny and claim it was a manly shout) when he turned back around and saw a glittering horn pointing right between his eyes. He was so startled he stumbled forwards and the tip of the horn grazed his forehead. The next instant the air shimmered and Julia stood in front of him, bent double in laughter.

"Haha, what did you think I was gonna actually run you over or something?" she chuckled. Blaise glared.

"Look at this!" he pointed at his forehead. "You practically speared me!"

"Oh come on," she rolled her eyes. "It's just a tiny scratch."

"No, it's a terrible gash, and I'll probably have to get sti-what are you doing?"

Julia laid a hand on his forehead and the bleeding scratch healed itself. The only sign of an injury was the dried blood on his forehead, which he wiped off with his finger, feeling with wonder the smooth, healed skin there.

"Errr…thanks." He said ineloquently.

She just rolled her eyes again and danced off back to the still laughing group, with Blaise trailing behind her.

"I am definitely going next," Blaise said stubbornly when they were standing with everyone else once again.

"Ok." Kenna accepted. "At least it looks like that Song worked. Nice work, you two." She praised, making Mel smile proudly. Maxx just waved off the praise and grinned.

Blaise waited until everyone was quiet and then furrowed his brow in concentration, waving his olive-skinned hand in the air. Suddenly the air popped and where Blaise had been there was a small bat flapping its wings. The bat immediately flew towards Julia and flapped around her head, causing her to shriek and throw her hands up to cover her face. The air popped again to reveal a smirking Blaise.

Julia glared. "Are you satisfied with your revenge now?"

"Totally. Who's next? Mel?"

Mel shifted uncomfortably. "I don't think so. I'll go in a sec. I bet Hermione really wants to go, though." Maxx looked carefully at Mel, knowing something was wrong, but she wouldn't meet his eyes.

Blaise shrugged and looked at Hermione. The air popped and then two bats were in the air. They chased each other around the clearing, flying so fast they were almost blurs, then settled back into their spots where Hermione and Blaise appeared again.

"Cool. That will be useful to spy on the enemy with, especially since a lot of vampires are on the Dark side, and they have no way of knowing whether we are regular bats or one of them." Hermione flicked her hair over her shoulder and smiled.

"Professor…errr I mean Kenna, I just have one question. How come when we first found out what we were, I could go into my panther form and a bunch of us could grow our wings, if our auras were so tangled up with each other?" Harry asked sensibly.

"Well, my first guess would be that since you hadn't used your powers until then, the auras hadn't sought each other out yet, and your powers were usable. When you tried with the Headmaster, only the most powerful of you could get something past the barrier your auras had created together. The same thing happens when your emotions get out of control. To protect your core, your magic would burst out and escape. The auras shouldn't blend together again, though, since Mel and Maxx put a sealing spell into their Song, right?"

They nodded. "Good. Do you want to try your Animagus form again, Harry, or do you want to try your elemental powers?"

For an answer Harry raised a hand and pinched his fingers together. A small sprout burst from the ground. He then beckoned with his other hand and the sprout grew into a large willow tree. He twisted his wrist and one branch bent and wrapped itself around his waist and lifted him up gently to sit him on the joint between the thick, corded trunk and the branch itself. He sat high up and looked down at them all, waving, then slid down the trunk and whispered thanks to the tree.

"That was bloody amazing, mate!" Blaise cried, slapping Harry on the back lightly. Harry grinned and bent his little finger. The tree grew a vine that arched high into the air, above the unseeing head of Draco. It tickled the back of his neck and Draco frowned. It tickled again and he slapped his neck.

"Stupid bugs…"he muttered, scratching his neck. "Wait a minute…there are no bugs in here…Harry!"

Harry giggled and motioned with his hand to make the branch retreat before Draco chopped it off. Without warning a block of ice appeared under Harry's feet and one foot flew up in the air with his arms flailing. A brief look of panic flickered across his face before he fell flat on his arse. He sat on the melting puddle of ice with his arms crossed and glared until his tree reached out a tentacle-like vine and pulled Draco's feet from under him. The two boys sat in identical positions, arms crossed, glares directed at each other, while the rest of the group laughed once more. Finally Harry had to get up because his pants were getting wet from sitting on the ice. The vine released Draco and he stood gracefully, flipping his blond hair off of his face.

Aaron shifted on his feet impatiently. "Can I go now?" he whined.

"Yes. Go on. But try not to kill anyone." Kenna winked.

"I'll try," he promised. Effortlessly, he pointed a finger at Harry's tree and lightening came out of nowhere to strike the tree. But instead of hitting the tree, the lightening hit a silver shield that erupted out of the air. Shocked, Aaron looked at Draco who had a satisfied smirk on his angular features.

"Thanks." Harry said softly with a smile.

Draco snorted. "I didn't do it for you; I did it to…err...test my powers."

"Whatever you guys." Maxx rolled his eyes. "My turn now." He turned and motioned for them all to turn to face away from the tree. They watched in amazement as he asked Aaron to make it dark. He obliged without question, trusting his long-time best friend to know what he was doing. They all squinted into the darkness until they saw a point of light. A small fire sprang up in the grass, flickering with amazing blue and green flames. Little pinpoints of different colored light appeared in the darkness and grew until they looked like mini fireworks. They exploded silently and the sparks of light fell to the ground and danced above the fire. Rain drops fell and the fire continued to burn, but the light reflected off the rain drops and created a beautiful rainbow. The light all faded and Aaron lifted the darkness. Everyone clapped at the display.

"That was so romantic." Hermione sighed.

"Ugh. Gag me." Draco muttered.

"Oh shut up you pouf. You loved it." Harry teased.

"Well at least one of you has some creativity." Kenna mocked. "The rest of you didn't do much." She teased.

"Mel, you're the only one left." Maxx said gently, ignoring everyone else's teasing.

"Uhhh…I dunno…maybe I should wait…"

"Mel," Maxx pulled her aside and motioned for Julia to join then. "Just because you couldn't control it once doesn't mean it's gonna happen again."

"Yah, I mean come on. We all did it. You can do it too. The only reason you couldn't control your power is because is a little more…well uncontrollable than everyone else's." Julia encouraged her best friend.

"But you guys," Mel whispered. "What if I mess up again? What I hurt someone? What if-"

"What if you pull this off and show everyone that you have as much control as they do because you can control such a powerful element? Weather mages have the hardest time because it's such a wild, hard to control element, but you can show us that you can do what others can't." Maxx persuaded.

"Come on, you can do everything else so well, and you're usually so stubborn and confident. Where's that confidence now?" Aaron appeared next to her. Julia looked at him with pride at his change of heart towards his old neighborhood change.

"Ok. Thanks. You guys are the best. I guess I can try." She straightened up and closed her eyes. A little bit of her tongue stuck out between her lips as she concentrated. She raised both hands and twisted them together. Clouds appeared in the sky and swirled together, creating a small funnel. The wind blasted past them and ran together with the clouds, making a neat little twister. Everyone looked with surprise as she opened her eyes and untwisted her arms. The twister immediately fell apart and the clouds departed.

They all clapped loudly. "Wow." Blaise remarked. "That was pretty damn cool."

"Yah but it didn't beat my light show…did it?" Maxx joked. "That was pretty good. See, I told you that you could do it."

"I suppose this means all your powers are in full working order. We just have to practice a little and then try to create some battle strategy plans. After that, it's work, work, and more work to perfect them." Kenna told them.

"You just had to ruin the mood, didn't you?" Harry teased.

"Well I guess we can have a little fun. How about a little war, girls against boys, using our powers? I'll be on the girl's team to even it out. What do you say?" Kenna offered.

"Awesome!" They all chimed.

"Psh! You girls are going down! There is no way you can beat us!" Aaron grinned good naturedly.

"Ok, ok, enough. How about 5 minutes to get a bit of a plan ready and then we start? No hurting anyone, otherwise the rules are, have fun!"

The girls and boys scrambled to get into their groups.

**A/U-** Next time, the war! Sounds like fun…wish I could be in it…sigh. Well whatever, just review please! And sorry for the wait again, for all you people who read my other chapters like a month ago. I'm writing chapter 11 as soon as I post this one so it should be up within the week.

Review!!! Please…

Oh, and by the way, I already finished chapter 11. I think that's a record for me. I finished two chapters in one day AND started chapter 12, which I seem to be having trouble writing. I'm waiting to get at least15 reviews on this chapter until I update. I'm up to 13 so far…2 more, people!


	11. The Boys Attack!

**A/U** I didn't have enough patience to wait for 15 reviews, so I posted early. Hehehe. 10 is good enough. Anyways,Idon't have much to say…except I have forgotten to put those stupid disclaimers on so here's one…even though I'm pretty sure it's obvious I don't own Harry Potter. Enjoy the chapter, hope it's not too terrible. I haven't been that satisfied with my writing lately…

**Disclaimer-**I don't own Harry Potter. There, happy now?

_Last time…_

"Well I guess we can have a little fun. How about a little war, girls against boys, using our powers? I'll be on the girl's team to even it out. What do you say?" Kenna offered.

"Awesome!" They all chimed.

"Psh! You girls are going down! There is no way you can beat us!" Aaron grinned good naturedly.

"Ok, ok, enough. How about 5 minutes to get a bit of a plan ready and then we start? No hurting anyone, otherwise the rules are, have fun!"

The girls and boys scrambled to get into their groups.

Chapter Eleven: The Boys Attack!

Precisely five minutes later they faced off in the field, the girls on one side, guys on the other.

"You're going down!" Mel said. "Way, way down!"

"In your dreams, Martini!" Blaise shot back.

"Alright now. Each team has sixty seconds to hide. There aren't many places to hide so I'm just gonna make a few adjustments. Hang on a sec." Kenna walked smoothly to the center of the entire field and her lips moved. The landscape suddenly changed from an open field with flowers to a large forest with bushes and trees everywhere to hide behind.

"This place is so cool. I didn't know it could do that." Hermione remarked.

"Why, it isn't in 'Hogwart's, A History' Granger?" Draco joked, half-serious.

"No, it's not, for your information!"

Kenna walked back. "Hey, hey, break it up! The two sides are separated by this strip of land here." She gestured to a clear piece of land stretching through the forest. "The winner will be determined by whoever gets the other team's flag from their main base first, or whoever has the upper hand in three hours if nobody has gotten the other team's flag yet. Ready? The sixty seconds starts…now!"

They ran to their separate sides, looking for places to hide. The boys ran to certain spots, having made a complex battle plan. The girls were planning on their telepathic skills to help them work together. Julia and Mel were planning on showing Maxx and Aaron that teamwork can win over battle strategies because in their old neighborhood, they had always made fun of them when they lost at games because of their lack of strategy.

Seconds, and then minutes passed, and nothing happened. Julia sat crouched under the shelter of a maple tree branch. Sighing, she impatiently crawled out into a clearing and skirted around it on her hands and knees. Suddenly something wrapped around her waist and lifted her in the air. She dangled upside down, hanging from a tree branch that had reach out and caught her.

"Harryyyyyyyy!" she shouted, annoyed.

A smug Harry Potter emerged from the bush a second later. She crossed her arms and swayed back and forth.

"That is so not fair," she scowled.

"Hey, Professor Kenna said we could use any of our powers, as long as nobody got hurt," Harry smirked. "And before you say anything, pride doesn't count.

**(Mel!)** Julia telepathically called her friend. **(Harry's got me in one of his stupid trees! Come help me!)**

**(Take care of it yourself)** Mel replied **(Blaise is over here trying to sneak onto our side and I'm trying to think of a plan to trap him.)**

**(How?)**

**(Just…I don't know; use your thunderbird power or something.)**

**(Well could you at least send some clouds over for me to work with? I'm not sure if I can make thunderstorms without clouds yet)**

**(Sure, no problem.)**

**(Thanks.)**

Julia broke off the connection and looked back at Harry, who was walking away to try to infiltrate further into their territory. She looked up and saw some light clouds floating overhead. With a quick thought they turned into dark thunderheads. Letting a smirk cross her face ththat would have made Draco jealous, she summoned them to float directly over Harry. With a snap of her fingers (actually, maybe it might have taken more than one try, but who's counting?), they burst open and rained on him. He stopped dead in his tracks, and turned around.

"So that's how you're gonna play. Alright then…" He thought for a moment, then lifted a palm, and the branch holding Julia lifted as well, then waved her around in the air.

"Har-ry I'm gonna ki-ll you!" she yelled, flailing around in the air helplessly. Suddenly Julia wasn't there anymore, and a huge, dark bird was flapping its wings, creating claps of thunder and dark clouds. The bird had a branch wrapped around its leg, but it easily snapped it, and turned its focus towards Harry, who panicked and threw his hands up, causing branches and vines to throw themselves at the thunderbird. The bird opened its beak and let loose a loud sound like the sound of lightening hitting a tall tree. And in fact, lightening did emit from the large beak, and hit the branches, causing them to fall to the ground blackened. Harry narrowed his eyes.

Not so far away, Mel sat in a tree, looking down at Blaise walking noisily through the woods. She chuckled under her breath as he muttered and swore at a bush with thorns covering it. She had heard from Hermione that Draco was somewhere near her, and Julia had told her she was taking care of Harry and Aaron. The only person unaccounted for was Maxx. They boys must have forgotten they had telepathic powers since they had never used them before, which gave the girls a huge advantage. She was trying to come up with a plan to incapacitate him for a while but not hurt him. The problem was, a wind right now would be rather noticeable. Then, she had an idea. Smiling devilishly, she waited for the right moment to strike.

Meanwhile, Julia hovered over the clearing watching Harry carefully for his next move.

Several feet to their right, Aaron was making his way towards them. It was impossible not to notice the large amount of noise his two friends were making. He entered the clearing just as Julia fried a bunch of Harry's plants to a crisp. Deciding his new friend could use a little help; he melted into the shadows and walked up next to Harry.

"Harry!" he whispered, still concealed in the shadows. "Need some help?"

To Harry's credit, he didn't give away the fact that Aaron was there by jumping or making a noise. Instead he nodded discreetly, pretending to study the area for an escape route.

"Ok. Here's the plan. I'm gonna sneak around to the other side, while you distract her. Then I'll try and shoot some lightening by her, not close enough to hit her, of course. If that doesn't work…run back to our side to regroup and come up with another plan." Aaron waited for Harry's accepting nod and ran to the other side of the clearing so fast he as sure no one had seen him.

Harry glanced at a fallen branch and it lifted into the air, about to slash at the powerful bird in the air. Just as the branch whistled through the air, the bird suddenly became cloud-like, and the wood fell right through it. Wasting no time, Aaron glared and a burst of lightening shot at Julia.

'_Oh shit…bad idea'_ he thought to himself as the giant bird-shaped cloud absorbed the energy and became even bigger.

"Time to leave!" shouted Harry. He changed into his panther form and they both ran for it. Julia quickly reverted to her normal form and ran after them. But Aaron was running so fast she could barely even see him anymore and Harry in his panther form was very hard to outrun. Eventually they crossed the border separating their sides and Julia gave up, unwilling to pursue them into their own territory. She slipped back into the forest on her own side and settled down in a new hiding spot to wait for the order to attack.

On the other side of the forest Draco stood perfectly still, pressed up against a tree, hardly daring to breathe. He was acutely uncomfortable in this position. The reason for his discomfort was walking not one foot in front of him, unaware of his presence. He shifted and a twig cracked under his foot. He winced as Hermione stopped walked and looked around with her sharp eyes. The minute she saw him, a patch of ice appeared under her feet.

But of course, Hermione was known as the smart girl for a reason, and she didn't fall for the same trick as Harry. A pair of cinnamon colored wings erupted from her back and she smugly lifted herself off the ice and floated above him. Draco blinked and grew his own pair of wings, which grew twice as big as Hermione's and reminded her of the way snow looked when the sunlight reflected off it in after a blizzard. They circled around, flinging good-natured insults at each other. Thinking quickly, Hermione sent out a thought to Julia asking for help.

Momentarily they heard something crashing through the bushes and a unicorn burst into the clearing gracefully. Julia transformed back into herself again and sent a wandless _stupefy_ at Draco. Draco scrambled to put up a shield and just barely blocked the simple spell. Hermione painfully conjured up a small wind to blow away the shield. This irritated Draco, who shocked the two girls by throwing his head back and letting out a roar. As soon as it escaped his throat, a look of surprise crossed his face.

"What the fuck?" he asked himself aloud.

An idea crossed Julia's mind.

**(Hermione, make him angry. Not too angry, just mildly annoyed.)**

**(Ok.)**

Between the two of them, they got Draco so annoyed that he let out another roar, and the next second they were no longer staring at Draco Malfoy but at a small dragon (well, small for a dragon, anyways). It was pure white, its scales radiating a silver glow. It had sharp, dangerous looking spikes running down its spine, and molten silver eyes. It stood at about six and a half feet tall with a long, long tail and white, iridescent wings.

"Wow Draco! That's beautiful!" Hermione gasped.

"I knew your Animagus form would be something like that. After all, your name means 'dragon'." Julia casually flicked her long hair over her shoulder.

"Well of course. I knew that," Draco lied, and then realized he could speak while in his dragon form. A second later another realization hit him. _They were still in the war…_

"And now I can really beat you guys! Excuse me…I meant girls." He condescended. He reared his head back and breathed fire high into the air.

"Or we could just…send you back to your side," Hermione smiled mysteriously.

"Psh. Yeah right. How are you gonna do that?" Draco rose into the air, beating his powerful wings. His question was answered as Julia transformed slowly into her thunderbird form and flapped her wings, creating a storm wind that pushed Draco high into the air and towards his side. He furiously beat his wings, trying to defeat the unyielding wind, but Julia brought her wings down one more time and Draco was sent head over heels into his own territory, crashing down on the ground.

Hermione and Julia smiled when they heard an annoyed roar come from the place the wind had deposited Draco.

**(Mel? Where are you? We've beaten Harry and Draco but we don't know if they'll be back and we haven't heard anything about Blaise or Maxx. Have you seen them?)**

**(Shhhh. I need to concentrate), **was the only response they got. They huffed angrily and began to walk towards the border together to plan their own attack.

Meanwhile, Blaise was still walking through the forest on the girls' side, not bothering to be quiet. He stopped when he heard a twig crack in the bushes next to him, and then an arm seemed to come out of nowhere and pull him headlong into the bushes next to him. A hand clapped over his mouth as he struggled to get free of his captor, who held him still with strong arms and forced him to look at him. Blaise stopped struggling and smiled sheepishly as Maxx removed his hand and looked at him with an irritated expression. He pressed a finger to his lips.

"Merlin, don't you know how to be quiet?" he whispered.

"No," Blaise grinned.

Up in the tree above them, Mel frowned when she saw Blaise stop and raise his head as if he had heard something. Suddenly an arm shot out of a bush and pulled him in. She heard muffled protests, and then silence.

"We need to…oh shit," Maxx stilled, as if listening for something.

"Wha-?" Maxx clapped a hand over his mouth once again. Blaise glared but shut his mouth obediently.

A sound trickled through the forest, filling the silence. Maxx strained to hear what it was. After a minute the sound became more defined and he realized it was music.

'_Must be Mel' _he thought.

Then they recognized the song and Blaise started to snort with laughter. Maxx rolled his eyes and stood up.

"She found us." He informed Blaise, offering Blaise a hand. They brushed themselves off and looked around them for Mel. She was nowhere to be found. Then suddenly she dropped out of a tree and landed right in front of them, chuckling.

"Oh god, please stop playing that song," Maxx pleaded while Blaise continued to splutter with laughter.

"Why?" she cocked her head to the side innocently. The music wound its way through the trees seemed to wrap around them. She sang a few of the words under her breath.

"Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when I come for you…"

"Ugh that's so cliché," Maxx muttered. He cast a _silencio_, which did nothing to stop the music or her singing. "Damn. Stupid Singer powers…"

"I agree, it is cliché. I hate that song anyway," The song ended. "It just seemed…I dunno, appropriate for the situation."

"Well as amusing as this is, I think we had better move on, so if you don't mind, we'll be leaving." Blaise moved in the direction of the where he thought the girl's main base was.

"Actually, I do mind."

An indignant gasp came from Blaise as he was drenched with rain from a rain cloud that had appeared directly over his perfectly groomed head. Mel giggled, then sang a Song that caused Blaise to stay wet no matter what he did. The Italian didn't notice the singing, and proceeded to cast spell after spell, getting more frustrated with each try. Maxx sighed. There would be no help from Blaise in this confrontation. He concentrated on remembering all the spells he had been taught.

Mel lashed out with a tickle curse and Maxx blocked it with a shield and threw a stunning spell back at her, which she also blocked. They stood throwing silent spells at each other for a minute until Maxx finally tried using his elemental powers by surrounding her in a ring of fire. She quenched the fire with a wave of rain, and sent a rushing wind at him, which knocked him over. He sat up, rubbing his head, and a light flashed in the clearing, momentarily blinding Mel. He grabbed Blaise and they ran until Maxx dove suddenly into a hole in the ground to hide. Instead he found them in a hole that was clearly the girl's main base. Something red lay on the ground next to them.

"I found the flag!" exclaimed Blaise, and Maxx threw him a look.

"Yah right, and you did what to help me back there? Oh yeah, nothing!" he snatched the flag off the ground and looked for a way out.

"Hello boys," a voice came from out of the shadows. Kenna emerged and lifted a hand, making a cage appear around the two triumphant boys.

"Fuck." Blaise mumbled.

"So congratulations, you have the flag. But now you have to get to your side, don't you? Only one problem. How to get out of that cage? Well I promise you, if you can get out, I will not stop you from returning to your side." Kenna smiled, inwardly calling the girls telepathically to tell them the news.

**(They're here. Do it now!)**

Julia, Hermione, and Mel trembled with excitement when they heard their professor's voice telling them to finish the plan. One by one, they crossed the border into the boy's territory. Mel sent a wind ahead to check for Harry, Draco, or Aaron. The wind came back to them a minute later, and Mel nodded at Hermione, who sprinted off in front of them, a little to their left. Mel then nodded at Julia, who did the same thing on her right side. Smiling to herself, she proceeded alone. She stopped when an idea occurred to her. Smiling even wider, she transformed into her Animagus form, which turned out to be a snow leopard. Purring low in her throat, she ran as fast as she could towards the boy's main base, her hind legs propelling her through the thick underbrush and leaves silently.

Back in the girl's main base. Maxx and Blaise were trying every spell and Song they could think of to get out of the cage entrapping them. Kenna sat on a chair next to them, watching them amusedly. The plan was going perfectly. She heard nothing except for the boy's frustrated growls for several minutes. Suddenly, a roar echoed through the entire forest, and she grinned. '_One down, two to go."_ She thought excitedly. She hadn't had this much fun in years. _'Woops, better make that two down, one to go.'_ As another annoyed roar resounded throughout the Room of Secrets.

Mel slowed down and slunk quietly on her belly around the building high up in the tree above her. She had found the boy's main base, a tree fort. Now she just had to get up there. She had no doubt one of the boys was up there. All she had to do was grab the flag without them noticing, then run back to her side. She transformed into her human form and thrust a hand forwards, palm up. A wind twisted its way into a window in the tree fort and gently blew its way across the feet of a boy sitting in a chair looking out the window for danger of any girls trying to steal the flag. The wind picked up and blew over a black flag on the floor in the middle of the small wooden fort. The flag drifted up and out of the window on the opposite side of the room. It floated gently into Mel's outstretched hand, where the wind let it go and dissolved into a light breeze. She grinned, clutching the cloth tightly in her hand.

Up in the fort, Aaron glanced behind him to check on the flag, and stood up abruptly when he saw it was gone. He jumped down from the window and landed on his feet to see a girl running off into the distance. He sprang into action and ran as fast as he could after her.

Mel laughed exuberantly as the wind rushed through her hair and the forest passed by in flashes. She ran leisurely, not in any hurry. Aaron chased after her, his long legs eating up the distance behind him. Just as he was about to catch her, Hermione appeared next to them. She flashed him a smile, then took the flag from Mel and leaped ahead of them to cross the border where Julia was waiting, grinning widely. Aaron slowed and then stopped. The girls cheered and high-fived each other. Draco and Harry walked up next to him, each looking tired and defeated. The landscape began to change back into its normal field and Kenna, Maxx and Blaise walked toward them. When they got there, they were all standing back in the little clearing they had their lessons in. Kenna congratulated her team and grinned.

"We'll get 'em next time," Blaise said, trying to be optimistic.

"Shut up," Draco told him.

"Ooh, boys, don't be sore losers," Hermione chided.

After the girls finished celebrating their win, Kenna gave them their prize, which was a gift certificate to Honeyduke's. The boys moaned and groaned the whole time, but cheered up when the girls offered to buy them a few things too. They headed back to the castle, exhausted. Mel and Julia were ecstatic that at last they had managed to beat the boy's battle strategies using teamwork. They explained how they had known Harry would be the first to attack, because of his Gryffindor bravery, and that Draco and Aaron would soon follow. When they beat the three boys, they knew Aaron would be sent back to guard the flag, as he was the fastest on their team. Maxx had been the best player at Manhunt, a similar game to the war they had played, only without the magic, so they knew he would be the first to get closest to the main base. The plan was to have Mel lure him and Blaise, into the trap and have Kenna keep him there while the girls went back to the boy's side. Julia and Hermione would distract Draco and Harry while Mel got the flag from Aaron since she was the one who could get the flag the easiest. Once she got it, she knew Aaron would be chasing her, and although she had beat him once, she didn't want to take the chance that he might catch her this time, so Hermione would take the flag from her when she was almost there. Hermione was naturally the fastest because she was part vampire, and faster than even Aaron, who was almost a full-blooded Elf.

The boys heard the story and sat in shock for the entire time in the common room. They might have won if they had remembered their telepathy skills.

After that game, Kenna allowed them to play it at least twice a week. As time passed, it became clear that the teams were no longer fair. Mel and Maxx were by far the most strategically intelligent players, and it soon became clear Harry and Draco were slightly more powerful than anyone else, so it wasn't fair for them to be on the same side anymore. Blaise was found to be a horrible player, and didn't much count in the ways of the war. He was very good at defending things though, and was placed to guard the flag. After a few weeks, Kenna switched up the sides and it was Harry, Mel, Julia, Blaise, and Kenna against Draco, Maxx, Aaron, and Hermione. The teams were relatively even after that. The first game had been a little slow, although played intelligently by both sides, but after a while the "wars" became fast-paced and much more advanced. They were all learning more about their powers and how to use them every day, not to mention they were being taught new spells every day as well.

**A/U **ugh I know, terrible ending, but I really can't think of anything else to add without it seeming stupid. Sorry! I swear I'll try and make it up to you next chapter. To those who care, anyway, lol. But hey, at least I updated relatively fast! Review and I'll update this fast . Well maybe not all theall the time time…but more often. **Here's a bit of a teaser for the next chapter.**

There's another "war" and…ummm…there's a new teacher, which means more lessons…and yeah. Then the chapter after that…finally a couple gets together! I'm not saying which. That's all I'm saying. Oh wait, one more thing, I finally put some of their regular classes in, since I realized I've been kind of ignoring those.

So yeah. Review.

Please and thank you!


	12. Silver

**A/U** Oh dear I did it again, I waited forever to update. Sorry! I just wasn't in that writing mood, ya know? Well maybe you don't but I don't care. Haha just kidding. Here's chapter 12, finally.

Oh, and by the way, will someone please let me know if Harry seems weak in this story? 'Cause someone reviewed saying Harry was really weak and was like Neville, and I didn't really see that, but if he seems like that to you guys, just tell me, 'cause that's not at all what I'm going for in this fic. I really hope that's not how it comes off, its just that the whole powerful Harry thing hasn't come in yet, they're still getting their powers.

_Last time…_

After the girls finished celebrating their win, Kenna gave them their prize, which was a gift certificate to Honeyduke's. The boys moaned and groaned the whole time, but cheered up when the girls offered to buy them a few things too. They headed back to the castle, exhausted. Mel and Julia were ecstatic that at last they had managed to beat the boy's battle strategies using teamwork. They explained how they had known Harry would be the first to attack, because of his Gryffindor bravery, and that Draco and Aaron would soon follow. When they beat the three boys, they knew Aaron would be sent back to guard the flag, as he was the fastest on their team. Maxx had been the best player at Manhunt, a similar game to the war they had played, only without the magic, so they knew he would be the first to get closest to the main base. The plan was to have Mel lure him and Blaise, into the trap and have Kenna keep him there while the girls went back to the boy's side. Julia and Hermione would distract Draco and Harry while Mel got the flag from Aaron since she was the one who could get the flag the easiest. Once she got it, she knew Aaron would be chasing her, and although she had beat him once, she didn't want to take the chance that he might catch her this time, so Hermione would take the flag from her when she was almost there. Hermione was naturally the fastest because she was part vampire, and faster than even Aaron, who was almost a full-blooded Elf.

The boys heard the story and sat in shock for the entire time in the common room. They might have won if they had remembered their telepathy skills.

After that game, Kenna allowed them to play it at least twice a week. As time passed, it became clear that the teams were no longer fair. Mel and Maxx were by far the most strategically intelligent players, and it soon became clear Harry and Draco were slightly more powerful than anyone else, so it wasn't fair for them to be on the same side anymore. Blaise was found to be a horrible player, and didn't much count in the ways of the war. He was very good at defending things though, and was placed to guard the flag. After a few weeks, Kenna switched up the sides and it was Harry, Mel, Julia, Blaise, and Kenna against Draco, Maxx, Aaron, and Hermione. The teams were relatively even after that. The first game had been a little slow, although played intelligently by both sides, but after a while the "wars" became fast-paced and much more advanced. They were all learning more about their powers and how to use them every day, not to mention they were being taught new spells every day as well.

Chapter Twelve: Argyros

One Saturday morning Maxx sat leisurely in the chair he used every morning while waiting for everyone else to get up. As he had done since he had arrived at Hogwarts, he turned his iPod on and put the headphones in his ears. The song that was playing was What I've Done by Linkin Park. He sang lowly to himself, knowing that Mel would be up soon and would join him. Sure enough, her clear voice pierced through his headphones before the first thirty seconds of his song were over. She added her higher voice and they joined to make the song into two parts, different from the original, but somehow better.

_In this farewell  
There is no blood  
There is no alibi  
'Cause I've drawn regret  
From the truth  
Of a thousand lies  
So let mercy come  
And wash away_

_What I've done  
I'll face myself  
To cross out  
What I've become  
Erase myself  
And let go of  
What I've done_

_Put to rest  
What you thought of me  
While I clean this slate  
With the hands  
Of uncertainty  
So let mercy come  
And wash away_

_What I've done  
I'll face myself  
To cross out  
What I've become  
Erase myself  
And let go of  
What I've done_

_For what I've done  
I'll start again  
And what everything  
May come  
Today this ends  
I'm forgiving_

_What I've done_

_I'll face myself  
To cross out  
What I've become  
Erase myself  
And let go of  
What I've done_

_What I've done  
Forgiving what I've done_

When they were done they smiled at each other and Mel commented, "I could definitely get used to waking up like this for the rest of my life."

"The rest of your life?" Asked Harry from behind them.

Mel blushed as she realized what exactly that could mean. Maxx watched her carefully as she explained. "Well I meant like, for the rest of the time we live here."

Harry just raised an eyebrow and picked out his breakfast.

For once, it wasn't long before everyone else was up and done eating breakfast. They were just getting ready to go down to the Room of Secrets when Julia suddenly leapt a couple inches in the air and ran out the door, calling for them to follow her.

"Hurry up!" Julia urged them a few minutes later as they were walking down the endless corridors of Hogwarts towards their training room

"We can't go any faster than this!" Harry huffed as they jogged to keep up with her long strides. Julia just looked at him and kept walking.

"Okay, so we could, but what's the point of rushing?" Aaron joined in.

"I told you! There's someone waiting for us!"

"Who?" Draco demanded, trying to walk fast and still look like he was gliding along at his own pace.

"She doesn't know!" Mel snapped at him. "Stop whining!"

"It's not like I said it a million times…"

"Not yet! You have, however, said it at least ten times." Hermione informed them.

"Maxx," Draco appealed to the most even tempered of them all.

"Don't even start. You've said it so many times, it's even getting on _my_ nerves." Maxx grinned.

"In other words, shut up! You can't say you're out of breath, you're an Elf for Merlin's sake!" Blaise rolled his eyes.

"This isn't fast enough! He's going to be annoyed, he knows I Saw him waiting for us." Julia muttered anxiously to herself.

"Fine! Merlin, woman! You could've just asked for us to run." Draco shook his head and accelerated.

Julia looked slyly at Mel from under her eyelashes. "I knew he wouldn't listen to me though. And I don't need the Sight for that."

Mel laughed and began to run as well. The rest of them followed Draco and arrived in no time at the Room of Secrets, where a tall man who had an athletic build similar to Aaron's was waiting impatiently for them. He was tapping his foot rapidly against the ground. When he saw them he stood up straight, revealing his remarkable height.

He walked toward them with long strides. "What took you so long?" He seemed to be directing this question at Julia.

She glared. "It's not my fault they wouldn't go faster. Besides, how could you expect me to tell them all that in the time you wanted us to get here, when I don't even know your name? All I Saw was you talking to Professor Dumbledore about training us and what time we should get here."

The tall man ran a hand through his long, metallic silver hair, which they all gawked at. "Very well. I am your physical trainer, Argyros. I was brought here from the Elvin Realm with Kenna to teach you your full strength and speed capabilities."

"Sweet." Draco commented. "Do we get to learn how to use swords and stuff?"

Argyros eyed him. "When you are ready, yes. And I will decide when you are ready. Until then, we will be doing stretching exercises and weight training. I want you to start this morning and run at a normal speed for one lap around this field, then run at your fastest speed for a lap. Alternate in that pattern for four laps, then meet me back here. Stretch first." He commanded.

Mel opened her mouth as if to protest but Maxx elbowed her and all that came out was a whoosh of air. She glared but bent down to stretch.

**(Hmph. I don't like him much.)** She thought to all the others.

**(Me neither, but he's not here to be our friend, he's here to train us.) **Julia thought back.

**(I say we give him a little taste of how life goes here at Hogwarts, Harry Potter style.)** Harry grinned wickedly as he straightened up from touching his toes.

**(You do have a knack for trouble.)** Blaise snickered, remembering all of the rumors that had gone around the school concerning Harry.

**(Well we can at least give him a chance. Let's work with him for a few days and see how it goes.)** Hermione reasoned. They all reluctantly agreed to give their new professor a chance, because although he seemed strict, he also seemed fair, and they could tell he would get them in the best physical shape they could be.

After a week of working with him, they were too tired at the end of the day to work up any schemes against their professor. Aaron insisted he was doing it in purpose, but none of them had the energy to complain. Finally, that Sunday they had the day off, thanks to Kenna who had persuaded Argyros to let them rest for a day. With all their regular lessons, then magic lessons from Kenna and physical training with Argyros, they were exhausted. They slept late and when they got to the Room of Secrets, Kenna had planned a surprise for them. They were going to have another war, to see how well they had progressed.

Draco sprinted through the trees as fast as he could, dodging flashes of green light as he ran, his eyes focused several feet ahead of him in order to avoid running in to anything. The bolts of green light ceased suddenly and in the blink of an eye he slowed, turned around, and ducked behind a large grey boulder to send his own bolts of energy at "the enemy", who happened to be Harry at this particular moment. He narrowed his eyes when he heard nothing from the direction he had been coming from and then stiffened as his sharp ears heard a stick crack behind him.

"I don't know how you do that Harry but it's kinda creepy." Was all he managed to get out before he had to do a front flip over the boulder to avoid the tendrils of plants that were whipping out at him from around a grinning Harry.

"It's my super stealth skills." He replied, then stopped talking so as not to waste valuable breath. They had been playing this game of war the entire day, and the advantage shifted from side to side so many times it was hard to keep count. Currently, Harry was on Draco's side and they were sending spells at each other so fast they looked like two blurs. They were sweating intensely and leaping over obstacles here and there. Finally they slowed, circling each other and breathing heavily.

"Scared Potter?"

"You wish." Harry grinned savagely, lifting his hand to send the spell that would stop Draco long enough for him to get the flag and win the game. Before the green light could hit Draco, a lithe shape leaped in front of him and repelled the spell, which hit Harry squarely in the chest. Harry was bound by his own vines, unable to move.

"Thanks!" Draco said with gratitude.

"No problem." His savior replied, turning around to face Harry, who was swearing at the vines who didn't want to let go of him. Eventually he convinced them to release him and he stood up straight, prepared to fight again.

"How do you just appear randomly out of places like that?" Harry's eyebrows drew together in frustration.

"I just find good hiding places." Maxx laughed, just to annoy Harry further, then hummed low in his throat. Harry found himself lifting off the ground and floating back the other way towards his side. Harry glared and Maxx was knocked back onto the ground. He floated back down.

"Well that's not good enough," Harry smirked before disappearing in front of their eyes.

"Shit!" Draco swore. "Where the hell did that little bastard go?"

Maxx gave him an amused look. "Where do you think he went?" Suddenly a loud crashing sounded from behind them.

"You idiots! He's right there, he's just invisible!" Said a blur in the vague shape of a human figure as it raced past them to barrel into something they couldn't see. Then they saw Mel standing over something and she muttered something under her breath. The invisibility spell Harry had been using fell away and he scrunched his nose up.

"This is so not fair! It's three against one!" He leapt to his feet and lifted his hands. Hundreds of plants, vines, branches, and grass came to his aid, wrapping themselves around the ankles of his attackers and refusing to let go.

"Draco!" Mel cried, shaking her left leg vigorously, where a particularly stubborn shrub was clinging to her. "Do something!"

"I am, hold on a sec!" Draco shouted back at her. Harry chuckled and tore off. "I need some clouds, hurry up!"

Faster than he could blink, several heavy, dark storm clouds appeared above them, from which he drew lightening to fry the plants on him. His pants sizzled as the lightening came closer to his leg than he was comfortable with. "I'll have to work on that later," he mumbled to himself as they freed themselves of the charred remains of the plants and sprinted in the direction of Harry. They reached the place where they had their flag and looked around. Their flag was still there and Harry was nowhere to be found.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Draco cursed under his breath. Realization dawned on his face. "It was a trap, to distract us, but why isn't there anyone here already…" He trailed of confused.

"Hey where's Mel?" Maxx looked around.

"I dunno, she was right behind us a minute ago. Come on, we gotta backtrack. I just don't get it, why would he distract us if someone wasn't here already stealing our flag."

"Whatever, let's go!" Maxx urged. They ran off back towards the border line between the two territories.

As soon as they were gone, a smug face appeared from up a tree. Aaron slid gracefully down until his long legs were a few feet from the ground, then him let himself drop. The drop made a thump, but he didn't care. Anyone who could hear him was long gone. Draco, Maxx, and Mel were chasing after Harry, and Hermione and Julia was being taken care of by Kenna and Blaise. He smirked to himself and walked confidently over to the pit where the flag was.

He didn't even get halfway before a powerful wind knocked him onto his back. Mel stood in the shadows of the clearing, smiling innocently. A thought occurred to her, and as an added touch she flicked her fingers and a brief downpour rained over Aaron's head, leaving him spluttering.

"Pffffft!" Aaron said, shaking his wet hair and making water droplets fly in every direction. He stood up and looked around for the source of his annoyance.

When he found it he rolled his eyes. "Mel…" He began, shrinking back into the shadows behind him so he could disappear.

"Don't even think about it!" She warned, a gust of wind wrapping around him so he couldn't move. "You need to learn to be less overconfident." She smirked, much in the same way he had been before she knocked him flat on his back, and cast a spell that he had never heard of before.

"I don't want to know what you did to me!" He snarled, then gasped at his own words. "Don't you dare not leave me alone like this!" Then a look of frustration crossed his face. "Get away from me and don't let me go from this wonderful wind! Yes, that's exactly what I meant to say!"

(Translation: What did you do to me? Don't you dare leave me alone like this! Come here and let me go from this stupid wind. No, that's not what I meant to say."

Mel giggled. "Okay, if that's what you want!" She ran off.

'Ok,' She thought to herself. "I don't have time to go get anyone. I have to get to the other side before Aaron gets free and heads me off.' With this in mind, she increased her strides and ran towards where she knew the other team's flag was. When she got there, she didn't slow down. She ran straight up into the tree house, grabbed the flag, and left, not wasting time looking for the other team's guard. She was betting on Aaron's tendency to have plans that either worked brilliantly or failed miserably because of one flaw. Hopefully, this time the flaw was that he had planned on keeping everyone busy while he got the flag, but he had neglected to put any guards on their own side. She bit her lip nervously as she ran. Suddenly she ran full speed into something hard.

"Uh!" She gasped, the wind knocked out of her. She had somehow managed to stay upright, and she looked up to see Blaise.

"Shit!" **(Hermione!) **She mind-shouted.

**(Ow! No need to shout! I'm not that far away!)**

**(Can you get here quickly?) **No sooner had she said it than she felt the presence of her friend standing nearby. **(Good. I'm gonna send the flag to you, then you run as fast as you can away from here! I'm not sure how long it will take him to realize I don't have it anymore!)** She concentrated fiercely on finding a teleportation spell that she could use for the object in her hands. They weren't exactly her strong point, but she thought she had one that would work. She quickly put the flag behind her back, making it seem to Blaise that she was merely trying to delay him getting it back. Instead, she was teleporting it to Hermione, who grinned as the flag materialized in her hands.

**(I got it.)**

**(Then why are you still here? Run, girl!)**

Rather than respond she just stretched her legs and ran, leaving Mel to deal with an oblivious Blaise.

"I know you're thinking about making a run for it." Blaise smirked. "You can try, but you won't get far."

"Oh yeah?" Mel challenged, thinking that she only had to keep him talking for a few more minutes so that Hermione could get to the other side. "Why, because of your 'vampire' powers? Have you even figured out how to use them yet?"

Blaise shifted. "Erm, not quite, but…"

Mel snorted. "Yeah, I didn't think so." Just a few more minutes, she thought. Just a little longer…

"HA!" a triumphant shout echoed across the "forest", which began rapidly changing back into the field it usually was, to reveal Julia standing in the middle holding the flag. Hermione was several yards away, lying splayed across the ground where she had tripped on one of Harry's tree roots.

"Oh mannnn!" Blaise wrinkled his nose and stalked towards them. They all gathered in the middle and the team consisting of Hermione, Julia, Mel, Maxx, and Draco congratulated each other, particularly Hermione and Mel for getting the flag and being smart enough to know what was a setup and what wasn't. Harry, although he had been held up on the other side, had felt Hermione's running footsteps on his tree roots and used one to trip her, while Kenna ran at her from the side. Hermione felt Julia nearby and threw the flag high into the air before Kenna could get it and Julia leapt into the air in her unicorn form to grab it and run to their side, winning the game.

After the winning team celebrated for a while, they settled down and chatted for a while. Then Kenna spoke.

"So are you guys too tired to learn something new? Something you may have been wanting to learn for a long time?"

"I dunno…do we?" Harry seemed to be directing this question at Julia, who nodded.

"Okay then. What is it?" Draco asked.

"Your professors and I have decided that it is time you all learned your Animagus forms. You already have other forms you can turn into, but we don't know your normal wizard forms yet. It could be a real advantage to have all these different forms to use when the time comes."

**A/N **I know, it's a terrible place to end it, but it just worked for me…so that's how it's ending. I'm writing the next chapter now, and I swear it won't be as long before I update next time. I promise!

Oh, just so you know, the names that are for the Elves like Kenna and Argyros mean stuff in other languages. Argyros means silver, and I already said what Kenna's name is but I'll say it again, Kenna means finely made and born of fire, and her last name Saranyu means "goddess of dawn."

Also, I realized that I made a mistake in the earlier chapters. In chapter 4, I say that Maxx and Mel didn't know that the other was magical, but then when Mel is talking to Hermione in another chapter, she says how she told Maxx about the Hole that her parents put her in, so then they must have known they were magical before that. I went back and fixed it. Sorry!

**Teaser**

They get their Animagus forms…Mel has a confrontation with somebody from home…there's a surprise and MAJOR cliffhanger …**ooh and one couple gets together.**

Review!


	13. čaroban životinja

**A/N** Here's chapter 13. Yeah…that's all I have to say. No wait, I lied, I also want to say I want you to review! Obviously…lol. Read and enjoy! Oh by the way the title means magical animals in Croatian. I used Croatian because one of my friends is Bosnian and…yeah that's a cool language. Hopefully that's right…

_Last time…_

After the winning team celebrated for a while, they settled down and chatted for a while. Then Kenna spoke.

"So are you guys too tired to learn something new? Something you may have been wanting to learn for a long time?"

"I dunno…do we?" Harry seemed to be directing this question at Julia, who nodded.

"Okay then. What is it?" Draco asked.

"Your professors and I have decided that it is time you all learned your Animagus forms. You already have other forms you can turn into, but we don't know your normal wizard forms yet. It could be a real advantage to have all these different forms to use when the time comes."

Chapter 13: čaroban životinja

"Seriously? We can learn our forms now?" Harry asked excitedly.

"Sure. We don't have much time because you need to get some rest for tomorrow. You have regular classes tomorrow and Astronomy is starting this week so you'll be up late. Let's get right to it. Who wants to go first? Actually, why don't you all try it at once? You may as well, and it really shouldn't matter because we know you are all now capable of changing into your alternate forms, like Julia's unicorn form or Hermione's and Blaise's bat forms."

None of them even waited for her to finish talking before they shut their eyes and concentrated.

"Wait!" Kenna called out. They opened their eyes. "Spread apart first! We already know that some of you have large forms because you've already transformed. This should be easy, I just want to see how fluid your transformation processes are and make sure that those of you who haven't already done it are able to. We, as in your teachers and I, also need to se what your forms are so we know how to use them to our advantage."

The group nodded and moved away from each other, then concentrated again. Harry transformed quickly into his panther form, while Draco became a dragon. Kenna smiled, pleased with how fluid their transformations were. This would make it easier to do in battle without worrying about being hit with a spell or anything else while they were changing. Mel, Hermione, Julia, Blaise, Aaron, and Maxx were also quite rare animals, which could make it harder to blend in. Luckily Hermione and Blaise had their bat forms which would blend in perfectly. Hermione was a red wolf, Mel was a gazelle, Julia was a lynx, Aaron was a cheetah and he had an alternate form, which was rare. It was a peregrine falcon, which was a bird with a maximum velocity of 200 mph. Blaise was a Malabar civet, a catlike animal, and Maxx was an ocelot. Draco was the only magical creature, besides Julia's unicorn form.

Harry was just sitting there when all of a sudden Draco flies up into the air and lands next to him silently to say something to him. He never got the chance because Harry, who was startled, jumped up in the air and his form rippled. When it settled down there was a black bear next to Draco's dragon form. Kenna gasped and then her face lit up.

"Wonderful, Harry! You're a shape-shifter! When you felt an intense emotion, you shifted into something that could protect you from whatever surprised you."

Harry wrinkled his snout in pleasure and towered over Draco, flexing his claws in a mock threat. Draco snorted out flames in what might have been laughter and dodged the blows. The black bear was suddenly replaced by a polar bear, a much more dangerous and unpredictable creature. The dragon flattened itself on the ground under the shadow of the bear. All of a sudden, it started to look like the bear was getting smaller. Then the group watching noticed that it was actually the dragon getting bigger. And bigger, and bigger, until it was twice the size of the bear. Both boys changed back and grinned at their teacher.

"Well, it looks like we have some newly developed abilities!" Kenna clapped. "Are you guys too tired to try and have a war completely in your Animagus forms?" She was met with a chorus of no's, so for the next two hours they had a war in their animal forms.

It was beginning to become obvious that the Wildfire mages were stronger than the Flame mages. It hadn't been as easy to see in the beginning when they were all still developing powers. Now it was clear that Harry and Draco were the most powerful mages, as they had had the most power before they became mages, then Mel and Maxx as Singers were the second most powerful. Hermione, Blaise, Julia, and Aaron all had equal levels of power in their different areas of expertise. The only difference was that Aaron was all Elf, so he was the fastest one of them all, except for Hermione, because of her vampire heritage, and Mel, who was mysteriously faster.

Kenna was secretly beginning to wonder if there was a part of her heritage that they didn't know about yet. As time passed, Aaron would begin to bear more and more of the Elvin physical traits, such as pointy ears and a more angular face. He was already very Elfish. But she couldn't comprehend why Mel was faster than Aaron if he was more Elf than she was.

After the war was over they decided instead of going to their common room together, they would go to their old Houses and talk with their old friends for a while, since they hadn't had much time to hang out with them lately. At around 10 they went back to their own rooms and fell asleep early so that they would be rested for the next day.

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Mel was leaving the Great Hall with Maxx, Hermione, Harry, Draco, and Blaise on their way to Transfiguration when she spotted her mother standing stiffly outside the double doors, seemingly waiting for her daughter.

"Hello Mother." Mel said coolly, her posture stiff.

"Hello Melodia. Who are these…people?" The woman said distastefully.

"These are my friends," She smiled icily at her mother.

"Melodia," Her mother gritted out through her smile, pulling her daughter aside. "Did I not tell you to stop associating with these people? We are going home now."

Mel jerked out of her mother's grasp and Maxx came to stand by her. Draco, Hermione, Harry, and Blaise decided that this looked like a private family thing and they should leave. Hermione hesitated as they walked away, but Maxx shot her a reassuring look over his shoulder that said he would stay with Mel. "These are my friends." She repeated. "And I do what I want now, Mother."

The petite woman gasped in shock. "Melodia! How dare you! You'd humiliate me in front of all these people? When we get home you're going in the Hole!" She hissed under her breath.

"No, Mother." Mel said coldly, a freezing cold wind beginning to blow. Maxx touched her arm softly and the wind settled into a soft breeze. "I'm not going home with you. This is my home now, with the people I love. And they love me."

"Melodia Elizabeth! You are coming home with me right now!" Her mother said furiously.

Mel stood firm. "I said no. I'm staying here."

"I didn't want to have to do this in front of all these people," The black haired woman began, "But it seems you have left me no choice." A black mist leaked out of her uplifted hands. Mel tried to shrink back from the mist that had been her enemy since she was a child, but Maxx stood strong behind her, bracing her. The mist approached her and began to envelop her. Before it could touch her skin, a warm blue and green glow began to emit from her. It touched the black mist, which made a shrieking sound and evaporated.

Mel's mother narrowed her eyes. "I see you have learned much, my child. But your power is no match for me, I'm afraid." The black mist approached again, this time more solid. This time, her mother concentrated on using all her power. Mel pushed back with her magic and the black mist began to retreat.

"This…this is not possible."

"Oh, but it is." Mel smiled gratefully at Maxx and then turned to her mother, her smile turning deadly. "You see, if you had bothered to check on me, you would have known that I was a Wildfire mage. But that's just too bad for you." The black mist was pushed entirely away until it was gone. A wind began to blow. "You never cared, Mother. You never even pretended. I can never forgive you for what you have done."

"I gave you everything!" She finally shouted, losing control of her emotions at last, hoping to cause her daughter to lose control and become weak again.

"That won't work anymore. I am no longer part of your family. Leave now, before I am forced to do something you might regret." Her vivid blue and green eyes pierced through her mother's soul. The small woman shook, then disappeared with a pop. Mel sagged with relief against Maxx, who held her tightly against his chest.

"She's gone." He whispered tenderly into her ear. "And she's not coming back."

A tear trickled down Mel's smooth cheek. "I didn't lose control."

"I know. I'm so proud of you." He turned her around and sat her on his lap so she was cradled baby style in his arms. He leaned forward for a gentle kiss. Soft music began to play and she pulled back. Maxx grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I can't help it. I'm too happy."

She leaned her wet cheeks against his warm chest and sighed. "I think I like you." She said so softly he could barely hear her.

Maxx stilled and she froze, listening to his quickened heartbeat. Then he relaxed. "I know I do." He replied, then put his fingers on her chin and turned her face towards his. She could feel her cheeks getting warm and hoped that her tan would hide her blushing.

"Melodia." Her name rolled off his tongue like the sweetest song. "Will you go out with me?" He asked just as softly as she had spoken. "And don't do this just because you think you have to since I comforted you. I mean, I want you to want to be my girlfriend." He added quickly, feeling his own cheeks grow warm. He had never felt so embarrassed in his life. Maybe he shouldn't have even asked…she was in a weakened state, he was taking advantage of her, she probably didn't know what she was saying, she probably didn't like him…His thoughts continued quickly in this pattern until she looked up at him and her clear blue-green eyes met his icy blue ones.

Mel spoke clearly and earnestly. "I want to go out with you. I always have. And don't think it's just because I'm not thinking clearly right now," She continued, as if he had read his mind. "I really like you." She loved him, but she wouldn't say so.

Maxx couldn't believe the girl he loved actually liked him back. Of course she would never love him so he wouldn't mention that…

"Stop it." She gently put a finger on his cheek. "Just stop thinking, okay?" She trailed her finger down his cheek, across his jawbone, and onto his lips, which she traced. His lips curved into a smile under her finger and she removed her hand. "Let's go home now." He knew by home she meant their common room. Hogwarts was their home now, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

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The next day during Hermione and Julia's free period, they were together in the common room when Mel came flying into the room with a panicked look on her face wildly pointing at her throat. She ran over to Hermione, gesturing with her hands like she was trying to say something.

"What?" Hermione looked puzzled. Mel got a frustrated look on her face and turned to Julia, motioning with her hands. Julia nodded and then translated.

"Her throat hurts and she can't talk. It's freaking her out because she's afraid she won't be able to sing. It just suddenly came on when she was leaving Transfiguration and she went to see Madame Pomfrey, who told her that there was something wrong with her throat, but she wasn't sure what. She only knows it's some Muggle thing and they usually have to have surgery to fix it. Then she told her that it's possible she may lose her singing voice, and it's really scaring Mel."

At the end of this Mel's eyes had started to leak frightened tears and Hermione stood up to hug her sympathetically. "Don't worry you'll be fine, you'll get through this." She reassured her. At that moment Draco and Harry came in from outside the portrait looking flushed.

"Hey guys what's up? We just went flying, it's so nice out…what's the matter?" Harry stopping babbling when he noticed Mel pulling away from Hermione and wiping her eyes. Hermione explained and Harry winced in sympathy.

"But what are we gonna do without her? She's one of our most powerful mages! Not to mention it would totally suck to not be able to sing, especially since she is a Singer. This is not good!" Harry started to panic too and Draco laid an elegant hand on his shoulder, effectively shutting him up.

"Are we forgetting something, maybe?" He spoke slowly, as if they were all first years. "Let's just calm down and think for a moment, shall we? Who among us could possibly have the power to do that thing where they fix sick people…what's that called again?" He said sarcastically, waiting for one of them to remember. Suddenly Hermione shrieked and realization dawned on her face.

"Julia! You can heal, remember?" She spoke excitedly. Draco smirked and removed his hand from Harry's shoulder, who was suddenly finding himself unexpectedly missing the warmth and comfort it had provided. He blushed and brushed the thought aside.

"Oh yeah!" Julia giggled nervously. She put her hand on Mel's throat and her magic spread out to seep into Mel's skin. A minute later Julia stepped back, dread crossing over her face.

"Guys…I don't think I can fix this. There's something else there, it's not just a Muggle thing. She can't even communicate telepathically. Her voice is completely gone. I have no idea what this is but I'm not sure I can fix whatever it is."

Mel started to shake uncontrollably. Nobody knew what to say. If Julia, a Flame mage couldn't fix it, then who could? They were lost without one of their most powerful mages, she was very important to their circle, and more than that she was important to them as a friend. This would hurt her deeply and her pain was their pain.

Finally Hermione spoke up. "I'm sure we can figure this out. Let's get Aaron and Blaise and Maxx to meet us at the library and find a cure to this. If we can't find anything we'll go to Dumbledore." Everyone nodded and they all hugged and comforted Mel while Hermione tried to call the missing boys telepathically.

"That's weird when I try to call Maxx I get nothing. Maybe he's too far away or something. I'll just get Blaise." She concentrated and a minute later her face went ashen. "Guys I found them. They're in the hospital wing with Maxx. He has the same thing as Mel. We need to get this fixed as soon as possible or else we're in huge trouble." She didn't want to say it out loud, but everything was thinking it. Maxx and Mel may never be able to Sing again.

**Teaser: **Some jealousy occurs, and there's some separation of friends for a little while and hmm what else…Draco invents a new potion and some funny stuff happens…


	14. The Healing

_ast time…_

Mel started to shake uncontrollably. Nobody knew what to say. If Julia, a Flame mage couldn't fix it, then who could? They were lost without one of their most powerful mages, she was very important to their circle, and more than that she was important to them as a friend. This would hurt her deeply and her pain was their pain.

Finally Hermione spoke up. "I'm sure we can figure this out. Let's get Aaron and Blaise and Maxx to meet us at the library and find a cure to this. If we can't find anything we'll go to Dumbledore." Everyone nodded and they all hugged and comforted Mel while Hermione tried to call the missing boys telepathically.

"That's weird when I try to call Maxx I get nothing. Maybe he's too far away or something. I'll just get Blaise." She concentrated and a minute later her face went ashen. "Guys I found them. They're in the hospital wing with Maxx. He has the same thing as Mel. We need to get this fixed as soon as possible or else we're in huge trouble." She didn't want to say it out loud, but everyone was thinking it. Maxx and Mel may never be able to Sing again.

Chapter 14: The Healing

The air almost crackled with tension as the incomplete Octet of teenage mages sat waiting in the hall outside the hospital wing. Once they were finally allowed to enter they found Aaron and Blaise awkwardly sitting on a bed with Maxx. All three of them were silent. Maxx was sitting with his face in his hands between his two friends, who weren't sure what to say. Mel motioned to them to wait by the door and walked silently in. Aaron and Blaise saw her and moved away. Maxx didn't stir. She walked gracefully over to the bed and sat next to him. Maxx felt the mattress dip down but didn't look up until she put her hand on his shoulder. Then he lifted his face out of his hands and buried it in her shoulder. They wrapped their arms around each other, silently giving comfort in a way nobody else could. After a minute they pulled apart and Maxx wiped Mel's tears off her cheeks with his thumb. Then he leaned forward and kissed each of her closed eyelids. A collective gasp rose from the group of their friends by the door. The pair turned and saw all their friends standing with identical expressions of shock and amused irritation.

"Excuse me! When did this happen?" Hermione demanded, her hands gesturing wildly at the two of them entwined. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Maxx and Mel looked sheepishly at them.

"Don't get me wrong, we all knew it would happen. It just would've been nice if you told us!" Julia mock-glared at them.

Maxx raised an eyebrow.

"Maxx is right." Aaron told them. "We can talk about this later. Right now we need to find out what's wrong." At this, the expressions of fear and hopelessness returned to the two Singer's faces. They stood to leave, hand-in-hand with each other.

Before they could leave, Madame Pomfrey came bustling over to them.

"And just where do you think you are going?" She scolded Maxx like a little boy. She tried to separate him from Mel but they only held on tighter. The couple glared at her, moving closer to each other. Hermione spoke up for them.

"Madame Pomfrey, they need to be taken to Dumbledore right away."

"Really? Says who?" the nurse challenged them, putting her hands on her hips. "I am the only person in this castle certified to heal the students."

"This is something that can't be healed the normal way." Julia tried to find a way to explain without giving away that they were Singers. The less people that knew, the better.

After a long hour of trying to convince Madame Pomfrey that it was best to bring Mel and Maxx to Dumbledore, they were beginning to get frustrated.

"Let's just go!" Blaise whispered urgently to Draco. "We're wasting time!"

Even as he was finishing the sentence, the door flew open and Dumbledore came striding into the Hospital Wing with an elderly man by his side, covered in a heavy grey cloak.

"Thank god." Harry sighed. "Professor Dumbledore…"

The headmaster held up a hand. "I know. Just wait a moment, please." He pulled Madame Pomfrey aside and calmly said something to her. Reluctantly the woman walked slowly away from the group. The minute she was gone Dumbledore was surrounded by a cluster of frantic teenage mages.

"Calm down," He smiled at them all fondly, looking rather smug when he looked down to see Maxx and Mel's linked hands. "I've brought someone who may be able to explain this." He gestured to the man next to him.

"Hello," The man said, with a surprisingly smooth, low voice. "I am Zamir, and I am from the ancient race you know as Singers." The entire group went quiet, waiting anxiously to hear what he had to say. If anyone would know what was wrong, it would be him. "You may have thought you were the only ones, but it is not so. But that is for another time." He stopped and took a deep breath. "I assume you two are together?" He asked the two Singers, who nodded, confused. "That would explain this, then. Sometimes when two exceptionally powerful Singers, such as yourselves, fall in love, their voices change. They become exponentially more powerful, and their voices become too beautiful for the human race to listen to. It is a vocal range that is rarely reached. To reach this level, the vocal cords in your throat have to reshape themselves slightly, which causes them to stop working for about a day and a half, usually. To control your voices, you will have to take a short lesson from me so I can teach you how to keep your voice in the human range so as not to draw suspicion. This started this morning, I presume?" The two Singers nodded, relief on their faces. "Then it should end tomorrow night. I would like to see you two the following morning. During the time where you regain your voices, you are not to leave the company of your friends, who will be able to withstand your voices, as they are not all human. Do not leave yours rooms for anything, understand? Good. I must leave, but good luck." Then he was gone. No noise, no dramatic exit. Just gone.

"That is a particularly mysterious race. Singers, I mean. It is said that no living soul except for the Singers themselves know about where they live. We don't even know if it's in this world." Hermione commented. "I read about it in…"

"The History of Modern Magical Cultures." Blaise finished for her, smiling. She smiled back, lost in their own little moment.

"Well now you know what's wrong. I think today would be a good day for a rest, anyways. No lessons for the rest of the day, or tomorrow!" Their professor announced jubilantly before sweeping majestically out of the Hospital Wing. The octet began the journey back to their rooms.

"That was weird. I was expecting…not that. Like I was expecting to have to go through this whole thing where we had to fix their voices and all that stuff, but instead some weird mysterious guy comes out of nowhere and tells them that their voices are just changing. Then Dumbledore just leaves." Hermione pondered out loud.

"I'm sure he has his reasons." Julia said distantly. Aaron looked sideways at her.

"Sure. Whatever, Miss Know-It-All." He said nastily. "Anyways, at least we have no lessons." He continued, acting as though he hadn't said anything wrong. The rest of the group just put their heads down and were silent. They could sense a storm coming.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Julia asked him calmly, as if she were trying not to overreact.

"Nothing, I was just kidding." Aaron said uncomfortably.

"It didn't sound like you were kidding to me."

"Okay, so maybe I wasn't. It's just that ever since you found out you can See you've been acting all mysterious and stuff. It's really annoying when the rest of us don't know anything and you know everything."

"I don't know everything. And the future isn't meant to be Seen by all."

"See? That's what I mean! You just act so condescending!"

"No I don't! You're just annoyed because you always have to be the best in everything! You always have to win, you can't ever lose or you go ballistic, and you have to know more than everyone else. It just bothers you that someone else knows something you don't for once in your life. You're so used to being the best that you think everything is about you. Well it's not!" She exploded at him, stopping in the middle of the corridor to glare at him. The rest of them stood off to the side, feeling awkward. Mel watched with interested eyes at what she knew was going to be a huge fight between her two friends. It had been a long time in the making and there were going to be many things said that would later be regretted. She predicted that most of her night would be spent comforting Julia instead of being with Maxx.

Aaron stared, shocked. "You are so…stupid. You have to throw it in other people's faces that you know everything because you never used to be good at anything. You were always the one left behind at home and now you want to brag about your stupid Seeing powers all the time. Well you know what? I think you're just making it up, and you don't really know anything at all and you just…"

"Shut up!" She cut him off, getting red-faced with anger. "You don't know what you're talking about. You used to be so nice, then you changed, and now you act like you're all that, and you're not! So just shut up! Nobody thinks you're cool except yourself. It makes you look stupid."

"You know what? I really hate you. You always turn things around like that." Aaron stopped because now Julia was staring at him silently, her face frozen. Slowly she stiffened up, and then walked away. Mel glared at him, then followed Julia down the corridor and around the last corner to their portrait.

"Great. You had to go and say the worst thing possible to her. Nice going." Blaise commented while Maxx came to stand silently beside Aaron.

"I'm not really sure what to say. This is obviously something private, and I think for now I'm going to stay out of it." Harry told Aaron carefully. Draco nodded once quickly, and they proceeded to their rooms.

"It's going to be a long night." Hermione sighed before she closed the door behind them all.

Julia ran up the steps to her room and slammed the door shut behind her. Mel sank down into a couch to collect herself and give Julia time to herself before she went up to talk, or rather listen, since she still couldn't talk.

Aaron entered next, staring pensively up at the door to Julia's room. "Crap, crap, crap." He muttered to himself. "I really blew it this time."

"Yes, yes you did." Hermione told him. "I don't know much about this, since you guys have known each other longer than I have, but it sounds like you really hurt her feelings." She shook her head and sat next to Mel. Maxx sat on the other side of Mel, clearly frustrated that he couldn't voice his opinions. Aaron stood undecidedly in front of them, looking back and forth between them and Julia's door. Finally Mel let out a resigned breath of air and stood to go to her best friend. Aaron stopped her.

"No. I think this is something that I need to fix." She lifted an eyebrow, then sat back down. Maxx wrapped an arm around her and they all looked expectantly up at the tall mage. Draco and Harry sat down on the other side of the room and looked pointedly at him. Blaise took in a breath to speak and Aaron walked over to the steps.

"Okay, okay, I'm going." He went up the stairs three at a time with his long legs, then hesitated before knocking softly.

Julia opened the door after a moment, her eyes puffy and red, tear tracks on her pretty face. Her eyes widened when she saw Aaron, then she slammed the door shut in his face. Aaron swayed, bewildered for a moment. "Obviously she was expecting Mel or somebody. Not me." He knocked again, louder this time.

"Julia? Open the door. Come on, I need to talk to you."

"Go away!" A voice came from the other side of the door. "We have nothing to talk about!"

"Yes, we do. Don't be stubborn. Listen, I'm sorry, okay?"

"You're just saying that. You already said you hate me."

"I didn't mean it." He waited, then was about to give up when the door opened again, although only a crack. He could only see her green eyes with specks of pure white in them.

"You didn't?" Her voice sounded more vulnerable to him than he had ever heard it before.

"No. I was just mad because most of the stuff you said was true, and I didn't want to admit it. It really annoys me to be wrong, in case you haven't noticed." He attempted to lighten the mood. It worked slightly, and she opened the door a couple more inches. "I'm sorry I said I hate you. I don't, really. I knew about that time with that boy, and I knew if I said I hated you it would really annoy you. I didn't know it would actually hurt your feelings. Seriously, though, I'm really sorry."

"Did you mean that other stuff, about me being a know-it-all?" She asked, wiping her eyes, which were watering again.

"No. Not really." His face turned red. All the apologizing was clearly making him embarrassed. "Did you mean what you said? Because I never knew I acted like that. Well, I sort of did, but I didn't know it made me look stupid."

"It's just so frustrating. I know you're a nice guy, but then all of sudden you started trying to fit in more, and be cool. It just made you look stupid, to me. I hate it, how you become so different. You can be really mean, sometimes."

"Sorry. I mean, I don't know what else to say, except sorry. I feel like an idiot. I just wanted to fit in more, you know? But I guess it wasn't worth it."

"Why wasn't it worth it? What were you expecting?"

"I thought I would have a ton of friends, and a girlfriend, and be happy and cool. But I guess I never thought about how I would never met anyone I really liked unless I was acting like myself. It turns out what I wanted the whole time was already right in front of me."

"What did you want?"

"Real friends, who cared about me. And…" he hesitated, nervous. "You."

An outbreak of whispering floated up the steps from downstairs before someone made a shushing sound. Julia didn't notice.

"Me?" She asked, confused. "But I was still your friend…"

"No…" He rolled his eyes, exasperated but nervous at the same time. He was starting to shake involuntarily. "I don't want you to be my friend."

"Why can't you ever just say what you mean?" She growled low in her throat, still confused.

"Because you're always making me nervous and aggravating me so much that I can never tell you!"

"Tell me what!" She cried, throwing her hands up. Aaron gave up trying to talk and caught her hands on the way back down. He pulled her close and kissed her softly on the lips. Quickly he pulled back and searched her face for a reaction.

"Oh." Was all she could manage, in a very small voice. "Well…umm. That was…uhh. Could you…ahem…" She cleared her throat, giggling nervously. "Could you do that again?"

He smiled brilliantly at her before bringing his head down for another kiss. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Shyly, he wrapped his own arms around her waist and closed his own eyes, giving in to the sensation.

"I…ummm." He stuttered when they pulled apart, still smiling stupidly at each other.

"Just say it already!" Hermione yelled up at them.

"Yeah, the suspense is killing me!" Blaise added.

"Iloveyou!" Aaron said so fast, she almost missed it.

"You do not!" She gasped.

He stared at her. "Yes, I do."

She kissed him hard again. "I love you too!"

"Finally!" Draco's voice interrupted their moment.

**A/N** Oh wow, I finally finished. Talk about major writer's block. I am so sorry guys. I swear I will never, ever take that long to update again. I promise! Anyways, here's what the Singer's name means. Review please! The more reviews and ideas I get, the less writer's block I'll have. And I know this fic isn't quite as mature as I'd like it to be, but I'd like feedback to see if people still like it. Thanks!

Zamir- Albanian, good voice


	15. Changes

_Last time…_

He smiled brilliantly at her before bringing his head down for another kiss. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck. Shyly, he wrapped his own arms around her waist and closed his own eyes, giving in to the sensation.

"I…ummm." He stuttered when they pulled apart, still smiling stupidly at each other.

"Just say it already!" Hermione yelled up at them.

"Yeah, the suspense is killing me!" Blaise added.

"Iloveyou!" Aaron said so fast, she almost missed it.

"You do not!" She gasped.

He stared at her. "Yes, I do."

She kissed him hard again. "I love you too!"

"Finally!" Draco's voice interrupted their moment.

Chapter 15: Changes

Afterwards, when asked to describe that long night, the group of teenagers could only think of one word; weird. None of them could sleep after the excitement of Mel and Maxx's voices changing and Aaron and Julia suddenly getting together. They all had no problem staying awake all night, especially since for some reason they all needed less sleep than they ever had. Hermione had a theory that it was because their Elvin blood was becoming more and more prominent, but she hadn't finished her research yet.

The night passed quickly, as if they were in a dream. It was one of those times where it was necessary to pinch themselves every once in a while to make sure they were awake and not dreaming some strange dream. It was so surreal, they didn't really remember most of it when the next morning came. The feeling passed when the sun rose, and they spent that day playing fun thinking games or practicing their fighting skills against each other. This way they were all distracted from their worrying about the two Singers.

Finally the sun began to set and everyone tensed up, waiting to see if indeed their voices would come back. They ate a late dinner, feeling tired after staying awake for over thirty-six hours. After dinner, they sat silently in a circle on the floor, their arms almost touching. An feeling that didn't need to be voiced made them feel like they needed to be with each other at the time of the Singers passing into more power, or else the power would be too much for the weaker witches and wizards.

The clock struck eight o'clock, startling them all. They settled back down, looking questioningly at Maxx and Mel. Intuitively, they knew it was almost over. The connection between them was intensifying every day, until they had an uncanny way of knowing things about the others that they hadn't known before. It allowed them to work together in ways that no one else could. In a way, they all loved each other, and this made them stronger than Voldemort, who had to rely on untrustworthy Death Eaters.

Suddenly Maxx's throat began to hurt so much, his eyes began to water involuntarily. Mel saw this and prepared herself for the pain. Instead, her throat went completely numb. She couldn't breathe for a moment. Both Singers squeezed their eyes shut. Unnoticed by them, the rest of the circle automatically linked their arms together, completing the circle. Green and three shades of blue magic filled the circle, at first almost transparent, then it became more solid, until none of them could see the person across from them. It dissipated quickly, and the Singers opened their eyes, which were both glowing. The glow also disappeared, Maxx and Mel breathed deeply in relief. Their breathing was in sync.

The rest of the octet broke the circle by letting go of their hands, then Harry spoke what they were all thinking.

"Can you talk?"

Mel cleared her throat. The numbness was gone. "Yeah." She replied uncertainly. "Oh thank Merlin!" She said with relief, louder this time. "I am so happy to be able to talk again. That was awful!" She stopped. Everyone was staring at her with ridiculous happy grins on their faces. "Guys?" Their expressions changed to confused. "Snap out of it!"

Only Harry and Draco were able to shake their heads and break free of the spell Mel's voice had put on them all.

"Woah." Harry's normally smooth voice sounded out of place and harsh after the sound of Mel's clear, dulcet tones. Harry's voice brought everyone else out of their trance.

"Wow. That is one powerful voice." Commented Draco.

"Talk about understatement…" Blaise muttered. "When your voice sounded happy, I felt happy. When you were confused, I was confused."

"Imagine, if it had that effect on us, what kind of effect it would have on witches and wizards of normal power." Hermione reminded them.

"Or Muggles." Aaron added. "Total control."

Mel was looking at Maxx. "Your turn." She said quietly. Her voice had no visible effect on him, but he nervously cleared his throat as well. All traces of pain were gone.

"That hurt." Was the first thing he said. "I never want to go through that again, no matter how powerful I get."

This time everyone managed to keep their wits about them. Harry and Draco seemed to have the easiest time of it, which made sense since they were the most powerful.

"Holy crap." Mel said. "Your voice sounds amazing."

"I'm not the only one." He informed her.

"No wonder you guys have to learn how to control it. If you just spoke like that all the time, everyone would feel everything you were feeling, or what you wanted them to feel. I think the only reason we got caught in the spell is because we weren't ready for it. It's not so bad, now." Julia said.

Draco had an idea. "Maybe you guys should try Singing."

"Okay!" Mel eagerly sat up straight. "It's been so hard to not sing for the last day. I hated it. Wanna try?" She asked Maxx, who nodded just as eagerly.

"Ready?" Without even counting aloud, they began to sing at the same time, on the same note. Then Mel soared up an octave and Maxx swept down an octave. They sang in perfect harmony, perfectly mellifluous. The notes were so rich it was hard to hear, almost too beautiful. The group couldn't pay attention to what they were Singing because of the canorous song.

Maxx and Mel, however, were paying close attention to what they were singing. To them, Singing was just singing, and it was something they had to do to live. It was as natural to them as breathing. They had both been good at it their entire lives. Music was the thing they turned to when they couldn't handle life anymore, back when they lived with their parents.

_It seems so long ago_

_Last summer_

_When I was there with you_

_We were always together_

_Now it's not the same_

_You don't see me anymore_

_I'm just another person_

_You see in the street_

_Passing by _

_You don't even wave_

_So long ago_

_I was with you_

_Out in the sun_

_Having fun_

_Arguing with each other_

_And never winning_

_So long ago_

_Last summer_

_Didn't think that it would ever end_

_But it did and now_

_We're both alone together_

_But it doesn't matter to you_

_No, not to you_

_Pride is more important I guess_

_If you would only see_

_See that we could have it again_

_That thing we had_

_Last summer_

_You weren't my boyfriend_

_But I wish you were_

_And I know_

_You wish it too_

_But you care more _

_About your stupid image_

_And I wanna let it go_

_I'm too good for something like that_

_But I can't_

_Because I love you_

_And I wanna go back_

_Back in time_

_To so long ago_

_Last summer_

Silence rang as thick and tangible as a solid wall.

"That was great, you guys." Julia said softly. "I'm so happy for you."

"Me too but…" Blaise yawned in the middle of his sentence.

"I am exhausted." Yawned Harry. Draco tried to agree, but he yawned so widely at that exact moment that they all heard his jaw crack loudly.

"I think it's time for bed." Hermione said firmly, standing up and ushering them all out of their chairs. "We need some rest. Mel and Maxx have to go to their lesson tomorrow and they won't be able to concentrate if they're tired."

"Yeah, I guess so. I'm just still excited about my voice. I could definitely sleep for a while though." Mel reluctantly stood, pulling Maxx up with her.

"Good night you guys." Maxx wrapped an arm gently around Mel's waist. Aaron did the same to Julia, and the two couples drifted off into their own little worlds to say goodnight to each other.

Once in their beds they all fell asleep quickly, despite all of the thoughts of the past two days running through their heads.

Mel woke suddenly in the night, sweating a cold sweat, as if she'd had a nightmare. Except she hadn't. The next thing she knew she was climbing out of her bed and running to her door, which she opened as quietly as she could. Something in her knew Maxx was having a nightmare and she had to go to him. She wasn't used to this intimate bond with him but all she knew was it was telling her to help him right _now_. She opened his door and slipped in quietly, then realized she forgot to close her door. She sent a gentle wind back to close it and then closed Maxx's door behind her.

As soon as she turned around and saw Maxx in his bed, she knew she was right. There was definitely something wrong. Maxx was tossing and turning on his bed. The sheets were on the floor, and sweat poured down his face, which was scrunched up in pain. She rushed over to him.

"Maxx!" She tried to wake up him, without success. She put her hand on him but he flinched when it touched him, obviously thinking it was something from his nightmare. She did the only thing she could think of…Sing. She created a breeze which swept across his face, cooling him down, and Sang him a song without words. The music filled the room, lightening the atmosphere and sweetening the air. Maxx stopped moving and his eyelids twitched, then opened. She stopped the music, and let the breeze continue.

"Hey." She said softly, stroking his face. Maxx took in several deep breaths to calm himself. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine." He replied in a shaky voice. "I just had some nasty nightmare, that's all."

She knew better. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not now." His eyes pleaded with her not to go, to understand what he wanted without asking. She did.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" She asked. He nodded. She waved her hand and the blankets on the floor picked themselves up and drifted back onto the bed, then settled themselves. She lifted a corner up and slid under. He reached out with one arm and pulled her closer.

"Goodnight." Mel kissed his hand.

"Sleep well." He replied, resting his head on her shoulder.

The next thing they knew, sunlight was streaming in through the window onto their faces. They woke slowly, not wanting to get up and go to lessons. Then Mel sat up quickly, throwing Maxx off her shoulder.

"Hey!" He protested.

"We have to go!" She said frantically, tossing the covers off. "Everyone…they'll wonder where I went…and…I just slept in your…and the lesson…and…and…we have to go right now!"

Maxx watched, amused, as his girlfriend flew at top speed towards the closed door and almost ran into it in her rush to open it.

"Right now?" He asked. She stopped to stare at him incredulously.

"Yes, now!"

"At six in the morning?"

"…"

"Come back here." Maxx chuckled, a light tinkling of music filling the room like the rays of sun from the window.

"Oh," She smiled sheepishly and climbed back under the blankets, snuggling up close to Maxx. "Sorry."

"I'll set an alarm, okay?" He assured her, wrapping his arm around her once more. She nodded sleepily and nuzzled her head against his chest. "Now go to sleep."

They woke up in time for Mel to get back to her room without anyone noticing. By the time they were done getting ready, everyone else was up and getting ready. Just as they were wondering how they would know where to go and when, an owl flew in through Mel's window, which was always open. It held a note in its sharp beak that said to meet Zamir down in the Room of Secrets at 11:30am.

Mel walked fluidly out of her room and across to Maxx's.

"We have to be there in fifteen minutes. Are you ready?"

Maxx came out wearing baggy blue jeans and a grey t-shirt that clung to his frame. He glanced appreciatively at Mel, who was wearing faded blue jeans and a long green tank top with a blue belt over it.

"Yeah I'm ready. We just gotta tell the others we're leaving."

"No problem," She winked one bright blue and green eye at him and thought to everyone, **We're leaving. I don't know when we'll be back.**

**Okay**, came the general reply.

**Good luck!** Julia told them.

They walked slowly down to the Room of Secrets, enjoying the perfect weather and having their voices back. They simply chatted about random, unimportant things, unwilling to let anything ruin the moment.

Once the two Singers arrived at the Room of Secrets, they strode over to where they saw Zamir's form huddled over something on the ground. As they drew closer they saw it was a cauldron bubbling with a sweet-smelling, fluorescent pink potion in it.

"What's that?" Mel asked, leaning over Zamir's broad shoulder to take a peek.

Not looking up, he replied, "You're on time, how surprising. It is a potion for your throats, to help warm the muscles and help them get used to their new strength. It will also tell us the level of your Singing power."

"How?" Maxx watched carefully as the older Singer dropped in some kind of herb and stirred counterclockwise twice.

"It shall make your throat glow red if you have a low power, and indigo if you have a high power. It is much the same as the system of colors used to determine the strength of a wizard mage. The colors in between are the colors of the rainbow and indicate different levels of power."

"Is indigo the highest form of power?" asked Mel eagerly, picking up three small vials that lay on the grass beside the cauldron.

"Give those to me, please," Zamir commanded, taking the vials from her and cautiously pouring small amounts of the pink potion into each one. "No. There is said to be higher forms, such as white, black, brown, bronze, gold, silver…" He hesitated. "And then there are the Adepts."

"What's an Adept?" Maxx raised an eyebrow dubiously as Zamir handed him and Mel one vial each and indicated for them to drink the potion.

"An Adept is the most powerful type of Singer. If you happen to be an Adept, which is rare but possible, considering your Wildfire mage backgrounds, than your throat will not glow. It shall produce pure Light, that eliminates shadows and darkness entirely from the area surrounding you.

"Wow." Mel whispered, awed.

"Enough of this. Drink!" Zamir tilted his head back and downed his entire vial.

Maxx obeyed without question but Mel asked, "You're doing it too?"

Zamir glared, obviously not used to his commands being ignored. Mel rolled her eyes and drank her potion too. They dropped their vials on the ground and waited. Slowly a violet glow begin to emit from Zamir's throat, and he smiled, confident that the potion was working properly. Mel and Maxx continued to wait. Gradually, they felt the warmth of the potion spread through their muscles, relaxing them. Both of their throats emitted a pale red glow. Zamir observed, frowning.

"That is odd. Red is the lowest form, and that isn't possible for bonded Singers, especially since you both have such strong mage powers and such strong voices…" He trailed off in amazement as the glow changed to orange, then flickered through yellow, green, blue, violet, and then indigo. All of their eyes widened when the indigo color began to brighten.

"Cover your eyes!" Zamir cried, shielding his face with his long arms. Mel and Maxx clenched their eyes shut as the glow from their throats erupted into blinding, white-hot light. The light was so strong that it pierced the thin shield that their eyelids made. Abruptly, the light went out when Zamir Sang a single, clear note that resonated in the large room.

"Holy crap!" Mel breathed, opening her eyes at the same time as Maxx.

They looked for Zamir in front of them and found him kneeling on the ground, bowing his head to them.

"Adept Maxx and Adept Melodia, I offer my services as your humble servant, as the Singer Rules dictate I must. The Singers have been waiting for two such as you," He looked up at them and stood, not noticing their looks of shock. "You must come with me to the city of Singers, Arancia. That is where you belong."

Maxx recovered more quickly than Mel, who was still staring, dumbfounded, at Zamir. "Excuse me sir, but we cannot leave. We are needed here." He said politely.

"But you must!" Zamir protested. "You belong with other Singers, and there is much you can teach us!"

"We have too much to learn to teach others," Mel finally said gently.

"But there is nothing I can teach you. You have learned to control your voices on your own, without help from a senior Singer. None have done this before. I thought your voices had just not changed very much, but it is now clear that they changed immensely and you have controlled them to the extent that I did not notice."

"Perhaps," an elderly voice interrupted from behind them. "This would be better discussed in my office?"

"Dumbledore!" Mel and Maxx said in relief.

They quickly made their way up to the headmaster's office, where they stayed for several hours arguing over where the two Singers should go. Eventually it was agreed that they should remain at Hogwarts for the moment, and go to live with the rest of the Singer population when they felt the time was right. Zamir left, and Mel and Maxx stood to leave as well when their professor called them back.

"I would like to discuss something with all of you. Could you call the rest of your friends, please? This is something you all need to hear."

**Jules?** Mel mind-called.

**We're on our way.** Julia responded.

"She Saw." Mel explained to Dumbledore, who nodded his head, a small smile spreading across his wrinkled features.

When the rest of the group got there, they were already well informed about the situation. Mel and Maxx had been explaining to them on their way to the headmaster's office about the potion Zamir had given them and that Dumbledore wanted to talk to them about something important.

"Hello my dears," Dumbledore greeted them, smiling sadly. "This is a bittersweet meeting. I wanted to congratulate you on your progress in the past few weeks. I have never dreamed that I would have such wonderful, willing to learn pupils. You have done amazingly well, better than I could have hoped for. Your powers and skills will be invaluable in the upcoming war. But this is the bad news. The Death Eater activity has been increasing every day. I fear that the war is almost upon us. You will find that your lessons will become increasingly more difficult as I and your teachers try to prepare you. We will do all we can, but the rest is up to you. I just wanted to let you know that matters have become more urgent, and that we intend to fully rise to the occasion to defeat Voldemort once and for all!"

"We will try our best, sir." Harry said solemnly.

"Good!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "So after my cheerful doomsday prediction, what say we have a nice, relaxing day? Eh?" He waved them out of his office.

"You know, that man is absolutely baffling," Hermione commented thoughtfully.

"I like it." Julia said decidedly.

"You would." Mel shook her head and smiled. "You guys want to come into my room for a little girl talk? I haven't done that in a while. Just normal, teenage girl stuff, you know? To keep our minds off the war and let the boys have some 'guy' time."

"I think that sounds nice." Hermione agreed. "That okay with you boys?"

"Sure," Blaise nodded. "Sounds great, right guys?" Aaron, Draco, Maxx, and Harry consented as well, and the Octet headed up to their dorm to have some average teenage time together, without the worries of saving the world.

**A/N** So that's it. At least I updated in less than two months this time! Yay! Lol, anyways I have the rest of my story planned out, so it's coming to an end in a few more chapters, I can't really say how many. I can't exactly say I'm really psyched with how this story turned out, but it's okay. It was my first, and I think it turned out being more of an exercise on character and plot development than a really good story. I will be coming out with a new, better fic soon that I have been working on. It's much less confusing and generally better, in my opinion. I'm very excited for the first chapter to be put up. It's H/D, of course. So although I know I can write better than I did in this fic, I think altogether I'm glad I'm officially almost done with it, and I know that I will probably finish it now. Thanks to all my faithful readers, enjoy the last few chapters! And review, duh. Lol.


	16. Dancing

_Last time…_

"Hello my dears," Dumbledore greeted them, smiling sadly. "This is a bittersweet meeting. I wanted to congratulate you on your progress in the past few weeks. I have never dreamed that I would have such wonderful, willing to learn pupils. You have done amazingly well, better than I could have hoped for. Your powers and skills will be invaluable in the upcoming war. But this is the bad news. The Death Eater activity has been increasing every day. I fear that the war is almost upon us. You will find that your lessons will become increasingly more difficult as I and your teachers try to prepare you. We will do all we can, but the rest is up to you. I just wanted to let you know that matters have become more urgent, and that we intend to fully rise to the occasion to defeat Voldemort once and for all!"

"We will try our best, sir." Harry said solemnly.

"Good!" Dumbledore exclaimed. "So after my cheerful doomsday prediction, what say we have a nice, relaxing day? Eh?" He waved them out of his office.

"You know, that man is absolutely baffling," Hermione commented thoughtfully as they exited.

"I like it." Julia said decidedly.

"You would." Mel shook her head and smiled. "You guys want to come into my room for a little girl talk? I haven't done that in a while. Just normal, teenage girl stuff, you know? To keep our minds off the war and let the boys have some 'guy' time."

"I think that sounds nice." Hermione agreed. "That okay with you boys?"

"Sure," Blaise nodded. "Sounds great, right guys?" Aaron, Draco, Maxx, and Harry consented as well, and the Octet headed up to their dorm to have some average teenage time together, without the worries of saving the world.

Chapter 16: Dancing

"So," Mel began as she threw herself into the middle of her large bed. She crossed her legs and motioned for Julia and Hermione to do the same. "How have you guys been? You know, with like dealing with everything?"

"I dunno. I guess it's pretty cool to have these powers, I just wish I could use them for whatever I wanted instead of fighting in a war." Hermione said, sighing.

"Me, too." Julia agreed.

"But we don't wanna talk about that anyways. I have a question for 'Mione." Mel grinned mischievously at her newest friend.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. Honestly, she was a little surprised that she was invited to spend time with these two. They had obviously been best friends for a long time, and she felt like maybe they had just invited her because they didn't want her to feel left out. It truly surprised her that they seemed to actually consider her one of their best friends now. They had accepted her so easily, and she was grateful because one, they were really good people to have as friends. They were smart, fiercely loyal, and most importantly they had a sense of humor. Two, it was such a relief to finally have some friends who were girls. After so many years with just Harry and Ron, and then with Blaise and Draco, she had felt as if she would never have any other friends who she could just talk girl talk with.

"How's it going with Blaise?" Mel asked, interrupting her train of thought. Julia giggled.

"Yes, we've all noticed how you two look at each other. When are you gonna make your move?" Julia said.

Hermione looked shocked. "It's that obvious?"

"Well, only to us. Blaise has no idea." Mel amended. "But I know he likes you. Whenever you laugh, he gets this sappy look in his eyes. And it's time for you to have a boyfriend. Wouldn't want you to feel left out, with Julia and Aaron _finally_ becoming a couple, and then there's me and Maxx."

"Don't forget Harry and Draco," Hermione added.

"Oh gods above," Julia shook her head. "Those two are so oblivious. They would never admit they like each other. For boys who are usually really brave, they are absolute cowards about this."

"Well I was scared too," Mel admitted. "I mean, I've loved Maxx longer than I can remember, and apparently he's liked me for just as long, but neither of us said anything. Rejection is a scary thing."

Hermione squealed. "You _love_ him?" Mel looked horrified and clapped her hands to her mouth.

"I…I didn't mean to…to say that," she tried to explain, but then she relaxed. "I guess you'd find out eventually. Just don't tell anyone, okay?" she pleaded.

"We won't," Julia assured her. "But _you_ should tell _him_."

"I don't want to." Mel said, crossing her arms stubbornly. "He doesn't love me."

"You don't know that," Hermione told her gently.

"Well fine. The day you tell Blaise how you feel about him, I'll tell Maxx how I feel about him." Mel smirked.

"That's not fair! You know I'll never do that!" Hermione cried.

"Exactly." Mel said.

Julia snorted derisively. "Well, I think you're both being absolutely ridiculous. Aaron and I fight more than either of you ever do, but at least we know that we love each other."

"Shut up," Mel and Hermione said in unison. They laughed.

"Seriously though," Mel said. "I bet Harry will make the first move on Draco. Draco denies that he ever feels anything. Harry loves so openly, it will be impossible for him to hide it for much longer. Everyone can see it, except Draco himself."

"Maybe we should…intervene. A bit," Hermione added when they both looked at her incredulously.

"You know," Julia said thoughtfully. "That's not a bad idea."

"Can you See anything?" Mel asked eagerly.

Julia concentrated for a moment. "I don't think it will turn out badly."

"Well, if we do it, it had better be obvious. They're both pretty dense when it comes to love. They won't admit anything unless it's staring them right in the face." Mel rolled her eyes.

"Reminds me of Ron," Hermione murmured, giggling a little bit.

"Sounds like you guys were good friends," Mel said. "I hope I get to meet him one day."

"I'm sure you will. He's a great guy, really. Just sometimes…Julia, are you okay?" Hermione laid a hand on Julia's shoulder. She had her eyes closed and she was pale.

"I'm fine," Julia rasped out. "Just…a…vision." She began shivering. Mel sang a couple soothing notes while they waited the vision out. The music seemed to help calm Julia down.

Julia's eyes finally flew open. She bolted off the bed, her eyes frantically looking for the door. When she found it, she flung it open. Mel and Hermione, bewildered, followed her out of the common room and down the hall that led in the direction of Dumbledore's office.

"I've got to find Dumbledore! They attacked…attacked…got to…tell Dumbledore…" Julia tried to tell them what she saw while they ran full-speed towards his office. The walls sped by them. Anyone who saw them would only have seen three blurs racing past them. They arrived quickly, flying up the stairs and through his open door. The headmaster was sitting calmly at his desk, as if he'd been waiting for them.

Frantically, Julia explained what she saw. "I think it was Hogsmeade, sir. They attacked, the Death Eaters, and they killed everyone. The village was completely gone. They're going to attack, and soon. It was awful…a complete massacre."

Dumbledore assured them that extra Aurors would be sent to protect Hogsmeade and that it would be evacuated as soon as possible.

"I want you to attend classes as you normally do, and go to your lessons. I will deal with this," he told them somberly. "I'm afraid there is nothing you can do about it yet."

They returned to their rooms, now distracted and preoccupied. They found Blaise, Aaron, Harry, Draco, and Maxx sitting in the common room, talking quietly with each other. When the girls entered Maxx immediately stood and rushed to Mel.

"Are you okay? The bond was telling me you were upset."

As they sat down, Julia curled into Aaron, who stroked her hair in a rare show of affection. Mel and Maxx were locked in their own world on the couch, staring at each other with an unbearable amount of sweetness and love. Hermione took that time to explain to everyone what happened. Blaise hesitated, then gave her a hug. Harry and Draco determinedly looked away from each other and crossed their arms, looking uncomfortable.

When Hermione saw this, it reminded her that they had been about to think of a plan to get them together before Julia's disturbing vision interrupted them. She surreptitiously mind-blocked Draco and Harry before telling the others as fast as she could that she thought they should try to find a way to get the two stubborn boys to admit they had feelings for each other. Meanwhile, they tried to continue the conversation without arousing their suspicion. Eventually Harry and Draco were involved in their own conversation about Quidditch and they were free to discuss their plan in detail without them noticing. When they were finished talking, they had decided to let the two boys try to work everything out on their own for a little longer before intervening. They unblocked the two seekers and returned to the conversation.

"I dunno, you just didn't seem like the type of person who would care if someone cheated during Quidditch," Harry was saying.

"Well I do care. In other matters it's different, but in Quidditch…the rules are fair and should be followed. I never approved of how Flint ran the team, but I went with it so that I wouldn't get kicked off the team."

Harry just shook his head and glared mildly at him. The glare held no real malice in it, but Draco was feeling tense and took it offensively.

"What are you glaring at?" Draco sneered. The others all sighed; Harry and Draco had gotten over most of their differences and were good friends most of the time, but they still had occasional moments where they fought over nothing, trying to resolve the tension that flowed between them from never talking about their past.

"Nothing. Why are you so touchy?" Harry replied.

"Always so self-righteous. It's all about you, Potter. The Golden Boy, the Boy-Who-Lived, teacher's pet, Savior of the Wizarding World…the names just go on forever. It's never your fault, it's always mine! You always beat me at everything and yet it's never enough for you! You have to go and keep beating me at everything else too! But if I get a little mad, it's always, calm down Draco, Harry's had it rough. Blah, blah, blah. I bet you had the perfect life."

Harry stood up, red-faced in anger. "Well at least I'm not a spoiled rotten little Malfoy brat who always follows his father like a zombie and practically pledges his life to an insane, murderous Dark Lord. I bet your father was shagging him just to become his right-hand man."

"That was low, Potter. Especially since you're the spawn of a Mudblood. Your father wasn't any better either, arrogantly being the best at everything like you. You and your perfect life can just go and…"

"I don't have to listen to this," Harry snarled. "Sorry, guys." He apologized to the others, who sat in silent shock.

"Wait just a minute, Potter! I'm not done with you!" Draco ran after him. They both stomped out of the common room and down the hallway. The door slammed behind them.

Blaise raised an eyebrow. "Just when we were thinking of a way to get them to admit they like each other, they go and have the worst row they've had since they became friends. Typical of them, I must say."

"Wow. That one was really bad. I've never heard them bring up any of that stuff before. Maybe this time they'll actually talk about it and resolve it," Hermione said hopefully.

"Wouldn't count on it," Blaise countered dryly. "Sorry about this, guys." He said to Mel, Maxx, Julia, and Aaron, who were sitting quietly together. "They had been enemies long before they were ever friends, and they've got a lot of issues."

"It's okay," Mel assured him. "We understand."

Hermione shook her head. "I think I should tell you about how they were before." She went on to explain everything about Draco and Harry's intense rivalry, how Harry had rejected Draco's friendship in his first year in favor of Ron, how Draco had followed in his father's footsteps for such a long time, and all the little incidents that added to their hatred. She told them what Harry's life had really been like at his relatives house, and that the Dursley's had abused, neglected, and generally mistreated their nephew, while all that time Draco went on thinking, like the rest of the world did, that Harry Potter had the perfect home life.

By the end of it, the teens who had so recently come to Hogwarts were astonished at the fact that Harry and Draco had been able to put everything aside and become friends so quickly. They were impressed, but also disappointed that they had just tried to forget about everything that stood between them instead of talking it out like they should have.

"Look!" Maxx pointed out the window suddenly. "There they are!" They all rushed to the window, where they could clearly see two figures standing by the lake, facing each other and clearly having a shouting match. One of them threw a punch, while the other one ducked and kicked out a leg. They fought hand to hand for a moment before resorting to magic. Eventually they came to a kind of draw and both sat down on the ground, exhausted. They sat there for a long time. Hours passed by, and their friends decided to leave them alone and went about their business, having faith in Harry and Draco to forgive each other.

Later that night, as they sat down to eat dinner, Harry and Draco burst into the room, laughing merrily. They both looked as if a weight had been lifted from their shoulders. Draco's normally stern face was suddenly radiant with laughter, and the worry lines that had begun to appear on Harry's forehead were erased, as if they were never there.

They stumbled through the portrait hole and straight into the kitchen to get something to eat. They halted when they realized there were six pairs of eyes on them, waiting for an explanation.

"Ahem!" Hermione cleared her throat pointedly. Harry and Draco turned towards their group of friends, looking properly subdued.

"Hey guys," said Harry meekly. "Um, do you mind if we eat real quick before we tell you what happened? We missed lunch and we're starving."

Narrowing his eyes, Blaise nodded silently. An awkward silence fell upon them as the two ex-rivals moved around the kitchen. When they had everything they wanted, they sat down on one of the couches and they all ate quietly.

"So," Draco said when everyone was finally finished. "What happened was, I followed Harry outside and down to the lake. Then we sort of…shouted at each other for a bit before I decided I'd had enough and I punched Harry. Sorry about that, by the way." Harry grinned good-naturedly before continuing in Draco's place.

"We just basically fought each other for a while before realizing we weren't getting anywhere with it. Besides that, it felt odd fighting each other after being friends for so long. So we just…stopped. And talked."

"A lot," added Draco. "We talked _forever_. And we've settled everything." He smiled at Harry and the raven-haired boy smiled fondly back at him.

"Boys are _so_ weird," commented Hermione, astonished. "How…how can you possibly go from being enemies for so many years, to suddenly trying to be friends, to fighting again, and then back to being friends?"

The two boys in question just shrugged simultaneously.

"I swear, you two are more hormonal than girls when they-," Blaise began to mutter before Hermione cut him off.

"Don't finish that sentence," she warned him dangerously. He gulped and nodded.

"Well I don't care how you did it, it just matters that in the end you're friends again. It would be awfully inconvenient if Voldemort suddenly attacked us and you two were fighting with each other instead of against him." Mel said.

"Are you sure there's nothing else you need to tell us?" asked Julia suddenly.

"No," said Draco. Harry, however, ducked his head guiltily and blushed. Draco nudged him.

"No," he murmured, still looking away from them.

Mel caught Julia's eye and knew that she knew something the rest of them did not. She smirked when she read the answer in her eyes. Draco and Harry had not only become friends that night…they had become something else, and they were trying to hide it. Draco saw the smirk, but nothing betrayed his anxiety about it other than his eyes, which widened marginally. He knew they knew, but they weren't going to tell. Bewildered that they trusted him so much, he smiled softly at them in gratitude.

**Don't tell me exactly what happened,** Mel mind-spoke to Julia. **I'd rather hear it from them when they're ready.** Julia nodded, and they smiled back at Draco understandingly, trying to convey through their expressions that they knew the reason they weren't telling was because they weren't ready. They needed to accept it themselves before telling anybody else.

From the look on Harry's face when he looked up, Draco had told him the entire thing through their mind connection. He, too, smiled in gratitude at the two girls.

The Octet spent a quiet evening together, laughing and joking and playing games, before going to bed early. They had classes the next morning, and none of them wanted to be exhausted on a Monday. Mondays were bad enough without being overtired.

Despite going to bed early and sleeping soundly throughout the night, all eight of them were sleepy the next morning, and hardly remembered getting ready for school. Suddenly they found themselves sitting down in their first classes. Hermione was in Ancient Runes with Blaise and Mel, who all shared a love of reading and challenging themselves with words.

"And when you translate the symbols into modern English," continued Mrs. Johnsbury, the Ancient Runes teacher, "You can see that they mean 'to dance is to live'. Of course that is only a rough translation. What I want you to do is copy those symbols into your notes and interpret them in your own words. When you are done, please place the assignment on my desk. You may leave when you are done." She paced around her desk and sat down to grade some papers. Hermione and Mel quickly fell to work, carefully copying the three symbols down whose meaning they had just learned. Blaise watched them with a tired but amused look on his face, then regretfully dipped his quill into his inkwell and began to do the same. He had gotten no farther than halfway through the first symbol when he noticed a blue and green glow in his peripheral vision. He glanced up, then dropped his quill.

"Ahem," he said quietly, trying not to attract too much attention.

Mel looked up with a distracted look on her face. "What?"

"You're glowing," he told her pointedly. At this, Hermione looked up from her work and saw that Mel was emitting a faint but steady glow.

"Oh. That's weird…" she shrugged and the glow disappeared. "Sorry."

"S'ok." Blaise told her with a grin. He winked at Hermione, who blushed before glaring at him and returning to her work.

A few moments of silence passed before suddenly the entire room was bathed in an overwhelmingly bright blue and green glow. Everyone looked up from their work, then jumped when they heard music begin to play. The light dimmed slowly, enough for them to be able to see again. Movement from the center of the room caught their attention. Gasps were heard all over the room as the students began to process what they were seeing.

Mel was no longer to be found in her seat. She had moved to where the room was clear of chairs and desks, and she was dancing. Her eyes were closed, and her body flowed with the beat of the music. Anyone watching could clearly see that the movements of her body were not rehearsed, and yet they found themselves oddly entranced. The dance she performed had them watching intently, feeling themselves start to tap a foot or nod their heads in time with the music. Mrs. Johnsbury stood at the head of the classroom, shock written all over her face. She shook her head and strode briskly to the desk where Mel had been sitting and looked carefully at the work she had done so far. She narrowed her eyes when she saw the symbols they had been studying were glowing brightly with a light that seemingly came from nowhere. Swiftly, she covered up the runes with her hand and rubbed them out on the parchment. The music stopped abruptly and Mel stood with a hand to her head, looking about in confusion.

"What the hell just happened?" Blaise broke the silence with a well-founded question.

"Melodia," the professor began sternly, "Did you know that you are a Dancer?"

Mel looked at her teacher, her blue and green eyes wide and innocent. "A dancer?"

"No, my dear. There is a distinct difference between being a dancer…and being a Dancer. A Dancer is someone who is born with a magical trait that allows them to work magic through music and dancing and the expression of their body. This lesson must be what triggered your response…the runes we were studying hold considerable power but I did not stop to think that anyone in this class would have that gene. It has not been seen for centuries." Mrs. Johnsbury shook her head, unable to believe what had happened. "We must talk to the Headmaster immediately about this development."

**A/N: Well…that was definitely the longest time it has ever taken me to update. I'm sorry about that guys, but I'm gonna try and keep that from ever happening again. I want you all to know that although I started this story in math class one day and I never really saw it going anywhere, I will definitely finish this someday, don't worry about that. In the meantime, I'm sorry, and hang in there. Thank you to those who didn't give up on me. I hope you like this chapter.**


	17. Author's Note

Alright

Alright. I give up. This story is clearly going to take forever to finish, and although I love the plotline, the way I've written it is simply not satisfying for me any more. The grammar and wording is childish and I've let my imagination run wild. The story is no longer about Harry and Draco, as I intended, but of my characters that I invented. So, to get to the point…I will be finishing this story, but I can guarantee very slow updates, so if you don't have patience, stop reading. Also, I refuse to change the way it is written, because it will sound weird if I do that, so it will continue in much the same manner of writing.

But aside from this story, I started another Harry/Draco story a long time ago, about the same time as this one was born. And that fanfic happens to be a little bit more…maturely written, I suppose. My intention had been to finish this fic, then finish the other one and post it when it was done. So now I face a dilemma. I find myself wanting to post the other one, called Ages, and I would update much more frequently than I do with Wildfire Flames. Not to worry, this one will be done, eventually, but in the meantime, do you want me to post the other one, which might satisfy your H/D needs a little better? Review and let me know, because I have been considering this for a while. Please help me out on this one…

ns


	18. Bonds of Strength

_Last time…_

A few moments of silence passed before suddenly the entire room was bathed in an overwhelmingly bright blue and green glow. Everyone looked up from their work, then jumped when they heard music begin to play. The light dimmed slowly, enough for them to be able to see again. Movement from the center of the room caught their attention. Gasps were heard all over the room as the students began to process what they were seeing.

Mel was no longer to be found in her seat. She had moved to where the room was clear of chairs and desks, and she was dancing. Her eyes were closed, and her body flowed with the beat of the music. Anyone watching could clearly see that the movements of her body were not rehearsed, and yet they found themselves oddly entranced. The dance she performed had them watching intently, feeling themselves start to tap a foot or nod their heads in time with the music. Mrs. Johnsbury stood at the head of the classroom, shock written all over her face. She shook her head and strode briskly to the desk where Mel had been sitting and looked carefully at the work she had done so far. She narrowed her eyes when she saw the symbols they had been studying were glowing brightly with a light that seemingly came from nowhere. Swiftly, she covered up the runes with her hand and rubbed them out on the parchment. The music stopped abruptly and Mel stood with a hand to her head, looking about in confusion.

"What the hell just happened?" Blaise broke the silence with a well-founded question.

"Melodia," the professor began sternly, "Did you know that you are a Dancer?"

Mel looked at her teacher, her blue and green eyes wide and innocent. "A dancer?"

"No, my dear. There is a distinct difference between being a dancer…and being a Dancer. A Dancer is someone who is born with a magical trait that allows them to work magic through music and dancing and the expression of their body. This lesson must be what triggered your response…the runes we were studying hold considerable power but I did not stop to think that anyone in this class would have that gene. It has not been seen for centuries." Mrs. Johnsbury shook her head, unable to believe what had happened. "We must talk to the Headmaster immediately about this development."

Chapter 17: Bonds of Strength

Several hours later found Melodia sitting in the mages' common room with the rest of her friends, shaking her head. They had had a very unproductive meeting with Dumbledore after everyone's classes finished, who had known surprisingly little on the subject of Dancing. The only information they had gained was that nothing had ever been recorded on the subject except for it was movement magic, used in the times of ancient wars.

"I just don't understand how Dancing is supposed to help me," she mused. "I can't really break out dancing in the middle of a war…"

"But Mel don't you see!" Hermione was alight with the idea of new information. Suddenly the pieces were falling into place. How Mel walked so gracefully... "This is why you're faster than Aaron. Your body was _meant_ to move."

Blaise joined in. "You could do so much with this kind of magic. Dancing is a movement magic, meaning it has everything to do with the way you move your body. There was a reason this sort of thing was so useful back in all those wars. People used it to evade curses flung at them, using their amazing reflexes to jump out of the way of things being thrown at them…the possibilities are almost unlimited. "

"It's interesting, to say the least," Maxx told his girlfriend, taking her hand in his and stroking it gently. She looked up and smiled at him. The others in the room rolled their eyes. The love those two felt for each other was so obvious to any onlooker, that it was surprising they had yet to make the confession to each other.

**Ah well. All in good time.** Julia thought to the others.

They all sat back and were silent for a minute, enjoying the feeling of having their closest friends surrounding them.

"Hey," Harry spoke up suddenly. "Does anyone fancy a fly?"

Draco sat up straight. "I'm in!" he responded instantly. Harry chuckled at the blonde's eagerness.

"Ehh," Blaise said. " I was kind of hoping to make some headway on that new book I checked out the other day…"

"I think I want to take a nap," Mel grinned sheepishly. "I feel drained from all that Dancing…it's the first time I've ever used that magic."

"I'll come tuck you in," Maxx stood, pulling her with him.

"Oh jeez," Aaron said irritably. "You might as well go sleep with her." Seeing everyone's scandalized looks, he quickly revised, "I mean, you might as well take a nap with her. It's obvious you can't stand to be apart from each other long." Maxx smiled at him, his expression relieved and grateful. They could share a bed at night now, without anyone thinking the worse of them.

"Anyone else?" Harry asked, standing to leave, while Draco was already edging closer and closer to the door.

"No thanks, Harry," Hermione smiled at him. Julia and Aaron shook their heads, curling up into each other.

"Okay," he replied. "We'll be back later tonight."

"Be careful out there," Hermione warned. Harry winked at her, then disappeared out the portrait hole, Draco not two steps behind him.

Blaise narrowed his eyes. Hermione and Julia just smirked at him, causing him to look suspiciously at them. "What's going on with those two?"

Aaron lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Yes Blaise, whatever could you mean by that?" Hermione's smirk grew more pronounced.

Julia smiled innocently up at Aaron, giving him a kiss. "I haven't the slightest idea what they're talking about, love." Aaron shrugged and wrapped his arm more tightly around his girlfriend, who rolled her eyes at his obliviousness.

Meanwhile, Hermione was trying not to laugh as she watched realization dawn on Blaise's handsome face. First, his eyebrows came down as if he were trying to figure out a particularly difficult math problem. She could see him putting the pieces together, and he was thinking of how the two boys interacted around each other. She grinned as his face cleared in surprise, having obviously reached the inevitable conclusion that two of his best friends were secretly in love with each other. His face lit up, then he glared at Hermione playfully.

"You…" she put a finger to her lips in a shushing motion. Aaron didn't know yet. It would be no fun unless they let him figure it out on his own…if he ever did.

"Hey, do you want to go down to the library? You can read that book and I can look for some new material. I'm running out."

"Sure," he replied, practically jumping out of his seat. Not only would they be able to talk about this sudden romance between Harry and Draco, he could also spend some time with the lovely Hermione. He felt a great wave of determination overcome him. She was beautiful, smart, clever, funny, and pretty damn amazing. He wanted her to be his. He was going to try his best to show her that he was everything she needed.

Hermione, unaware of the plotting going on inside his head, skipped over to him and grabbed his hand to pull him through the portrait. "Bye guys! We'll be back soon!"

"Sure you will," Julia called out after them. The door shut behind them and they slowed down to a leisurely pace in the direction of the library.

Blaise looked down at their innocently entwined hands and smiled. Hermione seemed to notice where his gaze went and jerked back, blushing furiously. "Oh, sorry-"

Blaise gently pulled her hand back down to his, lacing his fingers with hers. "Don't be." He told her, smiling. Her eyes grew big and she looked away quickly. He sighed. When they reached the entrance to the library, he steered her carefully away from the books and towards a door that he knew led into a garden just outside the library. He pulled her in behind him, and walked towards a bench that sat on the edge of a beautiful fountain, surrounded by hundreds of flowers they had never seen before. A cloud moved, and the moon shone down on them. A single pale blue flower beside them suddenly leaped up towards the light, as if eating it out of the air. The area around them went dark for a moment, and then the flower began to glow steadily, causing all of its fellow flowers to also light up and fill the enclosed garden with a strange, soft light.

Hermione forgot about her embarrassment and looked around them in wonder. Her face lit up with joy and she caught her breath at the beauty of it. She turned to Blaise to exclaim at the beauty of the place, about to ask him how he knew where it was, and jumped. His eyes were fixed entirely on her, seeming to glow in his face. She felt herself grow dizzy for a moment, clutching his hand tightly.

"Hermione," Blaise whispered, having eyes only for her. His hand that was not currently occupied came up to sweep a tendril of hair out of her eyes. She turned her face down, studying their hands. He put one finger underneath her chin and lifted her face. She blushed when she realized how close he was. She was very confused. Why was he doing this? Did he find out that she liked him? Oh god, she was so _embarrassed_…

Until his face lowered to hers and his lips gently touched hers, brushing against them in the sweetest of kisses. She gasped, feeling a fire hot as the sun race through her veins, encompassing her entire body. Blaise took advantage of the gasp and ran his tongue along her bottom lip, wrapping his arms tightly around her small body. Her arms flew up to latch around his neck, and she clung to him. They broke apart, gasping for breath, leaning their foreheads against each other.

"Hermione, I love you. I love everything about you. The way you bite your lip when you are studying something difficult, the way your face lights up when you're happy, the way you always know what to say," Blaise stopped, realizing he was rambling, and she hadn't said anything yet. What if she didn't love him the way he loved her?

She stroked his hair with one hand, not willing to let go. She pulled back a little bit and her face practically glowed with happiness. She couldn't believe what he was saying…but there it was, that look in his eye, the same look Mel and Maxx had for each other, and even Julia and Aaron, when they weren't fighting, and Harry and Draco, when they thought no one was looking.

At the moment, he was looking to be a bit concerned, and she realized she hadn't said anything yet.

"You are everything I want," she told him, kissing him fiercely. "I love you." She declared when the kiss ended. A grin stretched across his face. She had rarely seen him this happy. They sat in silence for a moment, basking in each other's presence before Blaise suddenly spoke again.

"So tell me about this thing with Harry and Draco…"

Hermione giggled and began to tell him her theory of when the two had gotten together.

Meanwhile…

Draco glared at Harry's back as the black haired boy pulled him relentlessly along the edge of the lake. Despite that fact that it was quite easy for him to run at this pace for as long as he needed to, he felt rebellious at the fact that it wasn't his idea to begin with.

"Harry, this is completely unnecessary. Would it be so horrible if we were to, oh say, _walk_?"

Harry looked back behind him to grin at Draco, the wind from their run causing his cheeks to flush pink and his hair to whip around his face. Draco caught his breath. Harry was _beautiful_.

"No," he replied, shouting to be heard over the wind. "But, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun!" He turned his head back and the sound of his laughter floated in the air. Draco very nearly growled at the absurdity of his actions, except for the fact that he was quite in love with the damn boy, and he couldn't help himself but to be absolutely enthralled with everything he did. He settled for an annoyed sigh instead, and allowed himself to so rudely pulled along.

Abruptly they came to a stop and Draco had to rein himself in quick in order to prevent himself from running into Harry. "What-?"

Harry made a motion with his hands and then turned to face his…boyfriend? He was certainly more than a friend…

"I've summoned our brooms. I just want to sit for a while." He told him. He slid fluidly onto the grass next to the lake. Draco had to admit, Harry had chosen a good spot to stop and wait. A few clouds passed and the moon suddenly shone down on the water. It sparkled beautifully, playing off the trees and bushes around the lake.

Harry thought back to the moment when everything had changed between them. One moment, they had been fighting each other spells, fists, everything they could think of. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground with Draco on top of him and those soft pink lips had come so close that he was overcome with the desire to see what they felt like. After that, they had much more reasonably discussed the issues between them. Draco discovered many things about the Boy-Who-Lived that night, and Harry also discovered many things about the Slytherin Ice Prince. It turned out that much of their differences had come from ignorance. Of course, both of their upbringing had contributed well to that ignorance, and circumstances had had helped cultivate it.

And now…there was something more between the two of them, and neither of them had been ready to admit to themselves exactly what it was. Until tonight…

Harry knew what he wanted now, and he could only hope that the blond sitting next to him would feel the same way.

Next to him, Draco was having many of the same thoughts. In most areas of his life, he was confident, cool, and in control. He was raised to be that way, but not only that, it was in his nature. But when it came to Harry, he felt wild, totally out of control. At times, it only served to anger him. At others, like right now, he loved it. He craved Harry's presence.

"Harry-"

"Draco-"

They grinned sheepishly at each other. Their brooms came soaring from overhead and floated several feet away but neither boy seemed to care. They sat in a kind of awkward silence before Harry spoke up, exasperated.

"This is ridiculous! Okay, look, I kissed you, because I really like you. And I don't care what it takes, I want you to be mine. As in, my boyfriend. You're already my best friend, and I want something more." Harry paused, his wave of confidence passing. He bit his lip nervously, peering at Draco out from under the fringe of his black hair, which had fallen over his brilliant green eyes during his little speech.

Draco gaped for a second before he remembered he was a Malfoy and Malfoys didn't gape. Then he thought, fuck the Malfoys, and leaned in to kiss Harry full on the lips. The grass around them brightened to an impossible green color, and the trees grew several inches. The earth below them rumbled with power, while the lake bubbled as if it were boiling. The sky, which had had a few fluffy clouds, began to pour shards of frozen rain down on them, which turned into water as it hit the ground. A shield like a giant bowl covered the two on the ground, keeping them dry.

"Love you," two voices murmured in unison as the elements around them celebrated the love of two Wildfire mages.

And so it happened that when Harry and Draco finally wandered back to the rooms, hand in hand. They were wind tussled from their fly, and it was rather late. At the same time, Blaise and Hermione came back from the library, holding hands as well. They all stopped outside the portrait that led to their rooms and grinned goofily at each other before Blaise broke out laughing. They all stumbled through the door to meet the surprised eyes of four of their friends.

Julia raised an eyebrow, and Mel and Maxx, fresh from their nap, chuckled a little. Aaron's eyes widened comically and his mouth dropped. He stuttered in shock for a moment, watching Blaise laugh his arse off for no particular reason, before Julia patted his arm.

"Don't worry. You'll get over it." She told him simply. He glared down at her and then shut his mouth before he could catch any flies. Apparently, he had decided it was best just to not say anything.

The two newest couples joined their friends on the various couches and chairs left available and told their friends how they had gotten together, and then basically just had a good time, laughing and talking with friends, forgetting momentarily about the war in which they were to play a crucial role in. For the moment, it was okay to just be a teenager. They chatted before-

"Hey!" Hermione suddenly cried. Everyone stopped in the middle of their conversation to look at her oddly. She blushed. "Umm, sorry, I just thought of something." She looked pointedly at Mel, who tilted her head to the side quizzically. She gave her a look that clearly said she would be talking to her later. Mel gulped apprehensively. "Anyways…Continue." Hermione said cheerily. Looking at her even more oddly, the rest of the Octet started up their conversation again, albeit eyeing Hermione a bit suspiciously all the while.

Just as they had begun to think about getting ready for bed, the fire in the hearth flared into life, and Dumbledore stepped through, looking apologetic.

"I'm sorry to intrude on you all at such a late time, but I felt there was some important information I had to inform you of. The attack on Hogsmeade…" here the teens looked guiltily at each other, suddenly feeling panicked. They had completely forgotten about Julia's vision, after classes and Mel being a Dancer and Harry and Draco and Blaise and Hermione getting together… "was mostly avoided, thanks to the foresight of our lovely young Seer." The old man beamed down at Julia, who blushed and ducked her head. "Death Eaters did show up but the area had been evacuated already. Of course, this will serve to anger Voldemort further, but ah, it is what it is. Many lives were saved tonight. You should be proud."

"Thank you, sir" Julia whispered. Aaron wrapped his arms protectively around her waist, pulling her closer. He felt rather possessive at the moment, thinking his girlfriend was the one who had saved an entire village.

Dumbledore chuckled at the display, then took another look around the room. He looked rather startled for a moment, noticing they had all paired off. "Well!" He exclaimed. "This was unexpected!"

The group of teenagers collectively raised an eyebrow. They doubted something "unexpected" had happened with the Headmaster around.

"How lovely!" He clapped his hands together joyfully. "But I fear I must go now. It is getting late." He looked at the young people sternly. "You should get some rest. Tomorrow starts bright and early!" He stepped into the fire with a cheery wave before disappearing.

They all agreed with him and parted to go their separate ways. Maxx took Mel's hand and pulled her gently in the direction of his room. She smiled reassuringly at him and followed him to his door before Hermione tapped her on the shoulder, her cinnamon brown eyes bright. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" Maxx nodded and let go, entering his room but leaving the door open for her.

Once they were in Hermione's room, she shut the door and turned to face Mel with her hands on her hips. " 'The day you tell Blaise how you feel about him, I'll tell Maxx how I feel about him' " She quoted, smirking.

Mel froze, then let her shoulders sag. "I-I'm not…ready," she whispered. Hermione crossed the room and gave her friend a hug.

"Yes, you are. It's obvious to everyone else. It's important that we strengthen every bond we have together to make us stronger as a group, and as people. Besides, he loves you."

Mel pulled away, her face troubled. She went to the door and took one step out, then looked back and asked, "But how can you be sure?"

Hermione smiled. "It's in his eyes. Just look and you will see it." Just as she was shutting the door after Mel left, a bare foot stopped it from moving any further. She opened it again to see Blaise on the other side, wearing a pair of pajama pants and no shirt. He looked nervous.

"Umm, I was thinking, maybe if you wanted, we could…sleep, together. I mean, not together like in that way I just meant like we could actually be asleep, but together," He rambled hurriedly. She shook her head and, taking his hand, led him to her bed. They cuddled up together before falling asleep quickly.

And in Maxx's room…

Mel slipped under the covers after wandlessly changing her clothes into a pair of shorts and a tank top. Maxx's long arm curved around her under the blankets and she lay her head on his chest happily. She loved sleeping with someone in the bed with her. She didn't think she could sleep alone after this. The warmth of his body lulled her into a content sleepiness. She traced random patterns on his arm that was resting on her side, not saying anything.

He lifted his bronze head and looked at her, sensing something was wrong.

She sighed. "I made a deal with Hermione…that when she told Blaise how she felt about him, I would tell you how I felt about you…"

Maxx felt the blood drain from his face. A sense of absolute dread and panic flooded through him and he couldn't think straight. What if she was telling him she knew he loved her, but she didn't feel the same way?

She felt him tense and lifted her head, looking him straight in the eyes. "You are the most important person to me in this world. You were there for me for my entire life, the only thing pulling me through when nothing else could. You treat me better than I deserve. Nobody else can do the things you do for me. It is impossible to imagine a life without you. And so, I want you to know now, before the war…in case anything happens…that I love you." She said the last part with a confidence she didn't feel, but the rightness of the words flowed through her like sunlight. He stared at her, then blinked. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he pulled her to him and kissed her fiercely.

"I love you." He whispered against her lips, and suddenly it felt like the room was filled with sunlight. A breeze that was as sweet as flowers in the summertime flowed through the room, and music from both the Singers filled the air. Outside, the clouds that were still raining from Harry and Draco's moment cleared away as if they were never there, and the night was as clear as it ever had been. The air practically hummed with the power of the last union of the Octet. Everything was as it should be, the power within the Circle of mages had grown as they bonded and now had reached its full potential.

The mages, however, only felt the flow of power and happiness in their bodies and minds and went to sleep with a sense of rightness and peace.

All of the creatures on the castle grounds and in the Forbidden Forest were teeming with life and excitement. The time was coming…soon the greatest war of all would erupt. Many would die, but the world was to be cleansed of all evil, and the balance restored. The sentient creatures such as the centaurs and unicorns looked to the sky and the stars, filled with hope for this world.

**A/N: Right so…heh. Hi there. It's been, oh, a few months…yeah like a year haha since I wrote anything. A year and a month, to be exact. But here I am, like I promised! I never abandon things. I'm at college now, it was a VERY busy year, applying to colleges and visiting them, working 40 hours a week and going to school…yeah. Well now I've finally settled in and I have lots of time on my hands. Well not lots, but enough to go back to writing. Yay! My muse has been bothering me for the last few months and I have only now just indulged it. So this fic will be done soon and then I'll work on Ages for my more mature readers. I realize that this isn't really college level writing but I'm not changing the way I started writing this cuz it would start to sound funny. I'll just continue it as if I never stopped writing, and I hope you all enjoy. Please, please review, I feel neglected because I haven't had reviews in forever. Though I suppose it is my own fault. Oh well. Umm…oh yeah sorry about this chapter there's not much action but a lot of fluff and that's because it's sort of a filler chapter…to get me back into things and also because I need this chapter for the rest of the story. So yeah…Thanks for reading!**

~ns~


	19. Weapons and Brooms

_Last time…_

The air practically hummed with the power of the last union of the Octet. Everything was as it should be, the power within the Circle of mages had grown as they bonded and now had reached its full potential.

The mages, however, only felt the flow of power and happiness in their bodies and minds and went to sleep with a sense of rightness and peace.

All of the creatures on the castle grounds and in the Forbidden Forest were teeming with life and excitement. The time was coming…soon the greatest war of all would erupt. Many would die, but the world was to be cleansed of all evil, and the balance restored. The sentient creatures such as the centaurs and unicorns looked to the sky and the stars, filled with hope for this world.

Chapter 18: Weapons and Brooms

When the eight of them woke up the next morning, they were considerably more awake than they had been the previous day. It felt like each of them had slept a full night's sleep, when in reality it had been a rather short night. The Headmaster had decided that he trusted them to do their meditation in the mornings in their own common room, instead of going all the way down to the Room of Secrets, so they sat down for a while to do so.

They had all woken up a bit early, so in the time before their physical training they decided to go have breakfast in the Great Hall. They felt isolated from the rest of the world. While it was nice always having seven very different people to talk to, each of them felt the absence of their House mates and the company of other people. They missed the great rumble of conversation that accompanied meals in the Great Hall, and the general feel of school.

So, each couple holding hands and talking merrily among themselves, they entered the Great Hall together…and noticed something odd. The entire room went quite. A silence like that in a room that large is quite intimidating, as any of the mages in the Octet would have pointed out. However, Draco raised one regal eyebrow, and next to him, Harry glared murderously at the student body. Abruptly, everyone started talking again, and the two boys smiled serenely and coasted on towards their breakfast.

The eight of them moved to sit on the end of the Slytherin table, as it was a lot less full than the Gryffindor table and they weren't willing to split up. The rest of the table murmured quietly to themselves, but the Slytherins mostly kept to themselves, a few of them greeting Draco and Blaise cordially. They nodded back, and returned to their food. Suddenly a voice spoke out from one of the tables.

"Too good to sit with us now, eh?" the voice of an unknown Gryffindor said loudly. A sandy haired sixth year stood up and glared at the teens sitting together.

Draco froze. Julia sighed resignedly, apparently seeing where this was going. The blond haired boy sat up rigidly, slowly putting his fork down neatly next to his place. He wiped at his mouth with a napkin, then very slowly stood up. As soon as he made eye contact with the boy, the air in the Great Hall, which had previously been warm and cozy, filled with life and the chatter of hundreds of students, suddenly went icy cold. He held a dangerous glint in his eye and the student's and faculty's breath froze in the air. The windows creaked as lines of frost began to spread across them. Everyone felt the effects of the boy's power and shivered, not only from the sudden cold of the air.

The boy gulped and sat down with a thump. Harry laid a hand on Draco's side but he shook it off. He sat down again, though, sending one more look towards the boy and making him cringe. The hall was utterly silent. Finally, after a minute or two, Harry could take no more, and stood.

"I realize that many things have changed. You have eight mages of unknown power living in the school with you." The entire contents of the room stared, enthralled with the black haired boy who was now standing. His veela There are followers of Voldemort sitting with us as I speak, and I know many of you are scared. This fear is nothing to be ashamed of. But do not take it out on us. We are here to protect you. Remember," he directed a stern look at the boy who had spoken out against them, "that we are on _your_ side. Now is the time for us to come together. Fear is Voldemort's greatest weapon, and I will _not_ let him hold that over us. Let our fear join us in alliances that would never have otherwise been formed," he smiled at Draco and Blaise.

"There is one thing that is inevitable. Things _will_ change." Harry's voice rang throughout the hall, clear and strong. His forceful words caused the students to listen carefully to what he was saying. "You must accept this change, or we will be living forever in this horrible time in which we can trust almost nobody. In other words," his tone lightened, realizing they were all, after all, only children, some of them only eleven years old, "suck it up, and get over it, or we'll never win."

He sat back down to the surprised faces of his mate and friends. He didn't know what to tell them; he was rather surprised at himself as well. However, he was saved from having to explain his sudden speech by the rather loud response to his talking. The room erupted into loud exclamations and quiet murmurs among close friends.

Harry sighed, annoyed.

"It's to be expected, Harry." Hermione reminded him sympathetically. "This is the first time that the issue has been addressed directly. Everyone has been skirting around it since the return of…of Voldemort." She made a face at saying the name.

"I just feel like people need to get over it. This has been a war in the making for years, and things are going to have to change. It might as well change in our favor." Harry frowned.

"Come on Harry, cheer up," Mel told him. "We've got to go to our lessons and I don't fancy trying to get through my day worrying about all the sad plants outside." Despite himself, Harry chuckled at that image. "Exactly. So let's go, we've got to get to physical training." Cheerily, she grabbed Maxx's hand and walked gracefully towards the double doors. Julia followed her best friend, pulling Hermione with her, and the rest of them groaned, getting up slowly.

Physical training was the most intense part of their day. Regular lessons seemed like a walk in the park compared to what they went through in the mornings. However, it paid off, as the eight of them were as physically fit as they were ever going to get in their lives. Argyros kept them in a strict routine which they followed every day without even thinking about it.

Today, however he started something new. "Hello children," he greeted in his normal, monotonous voice. "I have decided to begin your training with swords and weapons. The moves you have been practicing were mostly hand to hand, but can also be used when fighting with a weapon. For example," he drew a long, breathtakingly beautiful sword from beneath his robes. "When you lunge, you execute the same movements as you do when you are going in for a blow to the stomach. You must practice these moves with and without the weapons, until they become second nature to you."

Grinning, the eight of them moved forward to claim their weapon of choice. Harry chose a sword, because he felt more natural holding it. He figured this had something to do with the sword of Gryffindor in his earlier years. Draco chose a long, ornate knife, too short to be a sword, but deadly in its own right. He could hide this weapon anywhere on his person without it attracting notice. Mel chose a long, slender bow, with a quiver she could strap to her back and several deadly-looking arrows. She could manipulate the flight of the arrows with the wind, if she wished. Maxx chose a sword as well, and Aaron chose a small dagger, so he could slip easily in and out of the shadows with his weapon. Hermione and Blaise both chose belts with various assorted weapons in them, such as a long dagger, and a small rock-like object which would release a dark smoke when thrown on the ground. Julia also chose a bow and arrow. Hers was more sturdy and smaller, with a shorter range but a deadlier force. Argyros told them Kenna would later show them spells which would enable them to place different kinds of poison at the tips of their weapons.

Despite their excitement at finally being able to train with swords, knives, a bow, or whichever weapon they chose, it took them quite a while to get the hang of the weight of the weapons they were using. Once they grew accustomed, they began to realize they could treat the weight as if it were simply another appendage. Argyros did not comment, but only watched them with his brows furrowed together in thought. He noticed how they each moved so gracefully, it was as if they were attached to the weapon, and it flowed with their movements.

Eventually he paired Maxx and Harry off, in order to let them experience a fight with an actual partner. They danced around each other, their edges blunted with magic, while Mel was set up with a target on a tree trunk. She found it was quite easy when it was a direct flight, and she also discovered with delight that she could use the wind to make the arrow follow the target around, until it hit.

Hermione, Blaise, Aaron, Julia, and Draco were gathered on another side of the open field, where their teacher had simulated opponents for them and they had to decide how to best use their weapon in different situations.

Near the end of their lesson, he clapped his hands once, causing them all to stop. He paced back and forth a few times while the teens watched him curiously.

"I am pleased with your quick progress," he finally said gruffly. "You may go." The children gaped. This was the closest they had ever gotten to a compliment from their strictest teacher.

When they finished, they were walking back to their normal classes when Harry suddenly started.

"We never tried out for Quidditch!" He cried, dismayed. Draco looked alarmed.

"Yeah, as if we have time for that," Aaron muttered under his breath.

"True," Hermione said. "But I don't know if they would let you play anyways…" She hurriedly continued when the boys glared murder at her. "Let me finish! They may not let you play because you have such control over the elements. It's one thing to be so in shape, physically, but that's something anyone could do on their own if they wished it. Powers like the ones you have would give any of us an unfair advantage."

Blaise grumbled. "Why must you always be right," he said rhetorically. Hermione grinned cheekily at him and gave him a peck on the cheek.

"But why couldn't we hold our own game? We could play four on four, and you guys could teach us how to play," Mel suggested, her head tilted to the side thoughtfully.

"Brilliant," Maxx told her. "What do you say, guys? Up for a game tonight maybe, after our lessons with Kenna?"

Draco and Harry shrugged. "Sure," they said in unison, and then grinned at each other.

They had reached the corridor outside the Great Hall, which is where they had to split up. They agreed to meet in the Room of Secrets directly after their lessons, and then went their separate ways.

The day passed by quickly and as the eight of them finished their magical training lessons, they hurried out to the Quidditch pitch, full of energy and excitement. Harry and Draco had managed to persuade Madame Hooch to let them borrow some extra supplies from the supply closet.

They explained the game to the rest of the group using each other as demonstrations, and then began divvying up positions.

"I'll be a Seeker!" Draco and Harry volunteered simultaneously. Blaise groaned.

"Would you guys quit doing that? It's freaking me out. You sound like the Weasel twins."

They chuckled. "Okay so," Harry began, "it looks like me and Draco are going to be on separate teams. Now, we just need a Keeper, and two Chasers. I think we'll do without the Beaters, we don't have enough people. Julia looked slightly put out at the fact that she would not be able to whack a club around in the air, hitting Bludgers. Aaron took one look at her disappointed face and shivered. He loved his girlfriend, but it was best to keep her away from any type of physical weapon. He winced in memory of the bruises she used to leave on his legs when they played soccer.

"Why don't you and Draco pick teams, then, according to who wants to play what?" Mel asked. "I would prefer to be a Chaser." Maxx grinned at her, knowing she liked to be out in the action.

"I'll be a Keeper," he volunteered. He was always goalie when they played games at home.

"Me too," sighed Julia, still saddened by the loss of the role of Beaters in their game.

Harry looked at the rest of the group. "So that leaves Aaron, Hermione, and Blaise as the other Chasers. Are you three alright with that?" They each nodded their heads in confirmation, and Harry and Draco picked the teams.

"I want Maxx," Harry said firmly. The bronze haired boy walked over to him, giving him a high five. Draco raised an eyebrow.

"That leaves me with Julia, and I would like to pick Aaron as one of my Chasers." He knew Aaron would be the most aggressive out of them all.

"Alright, I'll take Mel," Harry offered. He knew she was a novice, but he had noticed how quickly she picked up anything physical. Her mental control, perhaps, was hard for her, but anything to do with her body, she excelled at.

"I'll take Blaise, and you can have Hermione. Let's play!" Draco let his enthusiasm show, a grin stretching across his face at finally playing a real game.

It turned out the teams were pretty evenly matched, so halfway through the game Harry called a time-out, and suggested they be allowed to use their powers.

This, of course, made things a bit more interesting. The score was still zero to zero when Mel had the Quaffle and was zooming towards Julia. Draco glared at her from his spot higher up that he was using to circle the pitch in search of the Snitch. The ball in her hands suddenly became very icy, and she lost her grip. Aaron was under her to catch the ball when it fell, and he threw it from where he was in the middle of the playing field. It flew with amazing speed toward Maxx, who propelled his lower body into a handstand on top of his broom and kicked the Quaffle back into the game. Blaise was there to grab and went for a rebound, but a sudden wind blew him off course and the ball plummeted into the hands of Hermione. She quickly calculated the best route between Blaise and Aaron, then flew forward. She wasn't quite used to the mechanics of flying on a broom, and she disliked heights, but she had found the game to be intensely enjoyable. She giggled as she blew past her boyfriend, who looked mildly startled. Aaron suddenly blocked her way, causing her to wobble on her broom, but she quickly caught her balance by letting her wings unfold. She drew as close as she dared to the goal hoops, then flung the Quaffle towards the hoop farthest from Julia. Julia however, had seen that coming, and suddenly appeared in the ball's path. Harry, getting tired of the back-and-forth movement below him, gave the Quaffle a passing glance, then continued to scour the field for the golden Snitch. He and Draco spotted it at the same time, and flew off at top speed towards the little ball with wings. As Draco flew by the goals, he threw out an immense shield that kept anything from penetrating the area around it.

"Hey!" Harry protested, not turning his head so as to keep his eyes on the pursuit of the tiny golden blur in front of them.

Draco snickered, then promptly lost his smile as Harry blew a hole in his shield with pure force of his own magic, and in that little opening Mel slipped through and scored a goal for his team. Draco scowled and concentrated on the chase.

While Harry and Draco were spiraling around the pitch, Julia scooped down to retrieve the Quaffle, and then lobbed it straight towards Mel…who was on the other team. However, as she had known he would, Aaron passed vertically straight in front of Mel and zooming towards Maxx, who hummed one solid note under his breath. A barrier erupted in front of Aaron, who dropped several feet in shock, but as Hermione went to grab the ball from him, Draco whooped from the other side of the field and held up the Snitch in his hand, grinning triumphantly. The rest of them descended to the ground, Draco's team coming to congratulate him and pound him on the back. Harry was smiling, despite his loss, while Blaise and Hermione were staring in shock at Draco, who looked rather surprised himself.

"Well done, Draco," Blaise told him heartily. "Your first win against the Golden Boy…ever." Draco pouted at the insult, but Harry leaned forward and kissed his lips which were sticking out enticingly. Draco's eyes sparkled with joy and Harry entwined their hands.

"He he he…"Draco giggled, unable to help himself. "I win!" Then he recovered his composure and grunted. "I mean, good game, everyone." The rest of them chuckled and put away the supplies they had borrowed, as Madame Hooch had made it quite clear if there was even the slightest scratch on her equipment, she would make sure they all had detention for a week.

Harry and the others who had flown on brooms before complimented the novices on their skill at mastering the broom so quickly on the way back to their rooms. They fell into bed, exhausted but happy.

The rest of the week passed by uneventfully, with classes and training going well, until Friday. They had all but forgotten about the threat of Voldemort when Hermione was making her way down from her Arithmancy class with Blaise. An owl flew by them, dropping an innocent looking package in Hermione's hands. Curiously, she turned the thing over in her hands. It was square, wrapped in a harmless white paper. Shrugging, Blaise quickly did some movements with his wand, making sure it had no hexes on it. Finding none, they opened it. As soon as the wrapping was off the thing, it exploded in a whirlwind of force, pushing them closer and closer to the edge of the stairway. The harder they pushed against it, the more forcefully it pushed. Abruptly, the force vanished, and Hermione and Blaise almost fell over backwards, startled. They turned around to see Harry and Julia at the bottom of the stairs they were on, glaring at a small white square object on the ground. Harry cast it out the open window near them with a thought, where the ground absorbed and dissolved the Dark object.

They hurried down the rest of the stairs to meet them.

"Are you two okay?" Harry asked them, looking royally pissed. "Julia and I were on our free period when she suddenly had the feeling we needed to come here.

"Yeah," Blaise answered shakily, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend's waist in an effort to calm himself. "What the hell was that?"

"A Dark object," Julia answered simply, folding her hands behind her back and strolling off in the direction of their common room after making sure they were okay.

"Yes, thank you, O Obvious Seer," Blaise said darkly. Hermione glanced at him reassuringly.

"I'm okay," she told him. "Whatever that was, it was meant to be a warning." Harry nodded at her and took her arm on her other side.

"And I have a feeling that Voldemort is getting ready." He stated grimly. The four of them squared their shoulders and went to their rooms to tell the others what had happened.

Once they had informed Dumbledore, their training grew impossibly more difficult and intense. They went through weeks of working constantly, although they had their moments of fun. It was interesting to learn all the new things, and they found enough time to enjoy being with each other and developing their new relationships. They made sure to put aside a little bit of time for their old friends, but they found themselves busier than ever.

Before they knew it, Christmas was coming. The attacks from Voldemort had suddenly stopped completely, drawing suspicion from the Octet. Dumbledore constantly pushed his spies into trying to dig up information, and repeatedly came up with nothing to show for it.

They decided to make the best of it, though, and Christmas morning came uneventfully, with the eight of them seated around a rather large tree decorated in the middle of their "living room". Julia had insisted on it, saying it "added Christmas cheer."

Harry and Draco sat curled up into one another on the loveseat closest to the fire, while the rest of the couples lounged on the two couches, and Maxx and Mel shared a space on the floor, handing out presents. It was an enjoyable morning, and they spent the rest of the afternoon playing with their new gifts, saving the more personal gifts for later that night.

In the privacy of their rooms, each couple exchanged a pair of rings. Their purpose was somewhat like a promise ring, but stronger. An Oath was required to prepare the rings, which then engraved themselves with whatever represented the witch or wizard wearing it best. Their other purpose, however, was to instantly bring them to each other if they needed it. It was a bittersweet gift, for though it represented their love, it also represented the coming need for safety that the war was imposing on them.

So, they passed into the new year with a sense of rightfulness, hope, and dread.


	20. The New Year

Alright so…yeah it has been umm a while since I updated haha, almost two years. To anyone who still cares, sorry about that. I can't guarantee updating often or anything but I have missed writing. I don't really have an excuse but I am going to try to start writing again, plus it will bug me to no end if I never finish this story. I know most of the people who started reading this story a couple years ago won't still be reading it but it will still bug me, I always finish what I start. So if any of you are still there, thanks for your patience, and to new readers…welcome!

Chapter 19: The New Year

_Julia looked around her in a panic. Where was everyone? It was impossible to hear over the screaming of the wind and the thunder. Faint echoes of cries drifted toward her from far away. She couldn't see anything. It was dark, the field only momentarily lit up by flashes of lightning. She stumbled forward, drenched, trying to see. She desperately threw up a shield to block the downpour of rain, and simultaneously tripped over something. Regaining her balance, she looked down and screamed. Bodies were everywhere, their eyes still open, staring at her accusingly. This was her fault._

She jerked awake, covered in sweat, panting. Tears ran down her face. She gasped for air, then stumbled out of her bed and ran to her window. Her bedroom door creaked open and the shadows moved. She jumped and spun around, and almost sobbed with relief when she saw Aaron closing the door behind him with a concerned look on his face. His eyebrows rose in surprise when he saw her expression.

"What-?" Was all he had time to get out before she was in his arms, clutching at him for dear life. He gently picked her up and brought her to her bed.

"A vision," she explained, hiding her face in his chest. He stroked her hair understandingly.

"Whatever it was, we can change it. It won't happen." He vowed. "You're safe."

She shook her head slowly and raised it so she could look at him. "Everyone was dead…" she whispered, the dread evident in her voice.

"It won't happen!" Aaron rumbled angrily. He felt abruptly furious at the situation. They were only 16. The war had taken over their lives. They spent their spare moments training to defeat a Dark Lord, and every other minute was spent in class, taking tests, and doing homework. It was absurd. This was not the life they should be living. His girlfriend sat before him, upset, and he wouldn't stand for it. "This will end soon." He declared. "I hate what this is doing to you."

Julia made herself comfortable against his side. "Me too." She said, exhausted. She had been having these nightmares ever since the new year had begun. She knew it meant something big was coming, and soon. She let her eyes drift shut sleepily. With Aaron by her side, she instantly felt more at ease. The more time that passed, the more she felt a growing sense that it was imperative the Octet stay together at all times. She jerked herself from her thoughts when she realized Aaron was saying something.

"What?" she asked. Aaron sighed at the distracted look on her face.

"I said from now on, I'm sleeping in here with you."

She wanted to argue with him that the others would think it improper, but she was exhausted and it felt so good to have him with her. Maxx and Mel did it, why shouldn't they? And before she could give an answer, her body rebelled against her mind, and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning she felt much better. With Aaron holding her tightly through the night, she slept soundly and had no more nightmares.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked her softly on their walk to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"More visions," Julia explained, making a face. "It's coming soon." Hermione nodded in understanding.

They had been training hard the last couple of months. It was early April, and they had a strict routine. Morning meditation with each other, which had turned into more of a morning ritual than an exercise, came first. Then an hour of physical training with Argyros. After that came regular classes, except on weekends, when they had free time. After classes they had magical training with Kenna. The eight teenagers had reached their full capacity in power, but had been training on how to use it. Kenna told them that normally wizards took their whole life become so adept at controlling their magic, molding it to let them do what they want with it, but as special mages, it came naturally to them. Each of them had their own intuition to guide them on how to use the elements to their greatest advantage. The only thing she had to teach them was fine tuning their control, and battle tactics. Argyros was very satisfied with their physical capabilities, and they were each confident with their weapon of choice. All in all, their time with their teachers was coming to an end, and so was their sixth year.

The day passed by quickly, as had the previous days. The young mages were feeling the stress of the war and their training and drifted through the days as if in a haze. Sleep, eat, train, learn, and then do it all over again.

At night, they sat around in their common room, paired off and staring into space. This is the state Dumbledore found them in when he firecalled them after magical training. His blue eyes looked sadly at the teens. "How are you all doing?" he asked kindly.

Harry looked up dully. "Fine, professor."

Dumbledore sighed. "I know the burden you all carry is heavy. I have a surprise, something I'd hoped might cheer you up. Would you mind meeting me in my office?"

They nodded their heads and stood. Mel and Maxx hummed a little, trying to lift everyone's spirits. They hadn't used their Singing powers in so long, they'd almost forgotten then.

"How silly are we," Mel whispered to Maxx as she noticed the other six brighten up considerably. "We need to keep ourselves optimistic, and use every resource we can. Our Songs are a source of strength for us and for everyone else. We shouldn't let ourselves get depressed like this." Maxx nodded, a small spark coming back into his eyes.

They made their way up to Dumbledore's tower, gave the password, and climbed the stairs, wondering what he could possibly have in store for them next. The same old routine was getting boring. After all, they were teenagers and they needed change in their life.

They opened the door and Harry and Hermione gaped at what they saw, unable to believe it.

Hermione rushed forward to attack the stranger standing in the circular office with a goofy grin on his face. "Ron!" she cried, wrapping her arms around him. His long, lanky arms came up around her and his grin threatened to split his face.

"Hey there, 'Mione," he said softly. Harry came up to him with a shit-eating grin on his face and slapped his best friend heartily on the back.

"Welcome back mate!" he told the redhead.

Dumbledore sat at his desk and smiled. "Mister Weasley here is back from Romania, the school year there ends early."

"Oh Ron," Hermione reluctantly let go so he could breathe and wiped the tears from her face. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because I wanted to surprise you," He laughed and motioned towards the rest of the group. "How about some introductions? I heard a lot has been happening. All this adventure without me?" He mock pouted.

"Relax, we saved the best for you," Harry joked. "Ron, this is Aaron, Julia, Maxx, Mel, and of course you know Blaise and Draco already." He pointed to each person as he said their names. They each grinned at him, while Blaise and Draco smirked.

"Weasel," Draco swaggered forward to shake the redhead's hand. "Nice to see you again."

Ron eyed him for a moment and then stepped forward to take the offered hand. "Never thought I'd hear that from you, Malfoy." Their voices held no malice in them, however, and Harry relaxed.

"Let's all sit down." He suggested. He waved a hand and chairs appeared.

They spent the next few hours talking. Ron's return had been a very welcome surprise. Dumbledore sat back and watched as new friendships were made and old friendships renewed, and saw the glimmer of happiness return to each of his student's eyes again. He sat back with a contented sigh.

It turned out Ron had finished school a bit early in order to come back and help prepare for the war. His parents weren't happy about it, as they had hoped to keep him away from the coming violence, but as he was to turn 17 and become an adult wizard soon, they couldn't keep him from coming back to help protect his family.

"Plus," Ron added, grinning mischievously, "I couldn't let you have all the fun without me."

After Ron's return they made sure to put aside more time for themselves to relax and have fun. Ron's enthusiasm infected everyone else and he made quick friends with the four new students.

The month of April passed by quickly, but with the eight students in much better spirits. Training with Argyros and Kenna was to be finished by the start of May, and while that saddened them, they were eager to take their exams and begin summer.

One day towards the end of April, the day dawned clear and warm. The students were all out on the grounds of Hogwarts. Julia had had no nightmares and there had been no attacks since the end of last year. It was a Sunday, and they had two more days of training left before their final goodbye with their elven professors. They had finished their homework and Ron was at home with the Weasley family, minus Ginny who was still at Hogwarts.

The Octet was sprawled happily under the shade of the Whomping Willow. With Harry there, the tree was content, waving its strange arms with the sway of the breeze. The sun shined brightly down on them.

Harry smiled and reached over to take Draco's hand. The blonde raised his head from the soft grass and smiled back. The other pairs lay in similar positions. Mel lay with her head in Maxx's lap, and his back sat against the support of the tree. Julia and Aaron were trying to learn how to play chess, and Hermione was studying for end of the year exams. Blaise was trying to distract her and was about to give up when she smiled and put the book down.

"It's too nice to study." She pecked him on the cheek and laid down. The others lifted their heads to stare in astonishment.

"Oh come on," she said, exasperated. "Even I can admit that I need a break every now and again."

"But Hermione," Draco exclaimed dramatically, "It's almost time for finals!" He put his hand over his heart and tried to look panicked. Everyone else laughed when Hermione glared at him.

"I can't believe how nice it is," Harry commented out of the blue, pulling Draco back to the ground and out of the way of Hermione's glare. "It's like the world decided everyone needed a little sunshine."

Everyone murmured in agreement and it was silent again. Suddenly a loud, resounding boom sounded from within the forest.

They all jumped up faster than the human eye could see. "What was that?" Harry asked, a feeling of dread settling heavily in his stomach.

Julia's eyes rolled into the back of her head and Aaron caught her before she fell to the ground. He looked up, panicked. "What's happening?" Dark clouds began to roll across the sky and they all looked at Mel. She shook her head slowly.

"That's not me."

"I'm going to find Dumbledore. Draco come with me." Harry said firmly, unwilling to let his boyfriend out of his sight if there was danger. Draco glanced at him, irritated, and was about to respond when Julia sat up with a gasp.

"No!" she said desperately, remembering her vivid dreams from the beginning of the year. "No, whatever happens, we MUST stay together. Do you understand? It is the key. We mustn't separate."

The others recognized the panic in her eyes and agreed. "What do we do?" Maxx's question was punctuated by another boom, followed by several cracks. Their eyes widened.

"Those sounded like…" Mel began.

"But that's impossible, Apparition is impossible within Hogwarts grounds…" Hermione trailed off uncertainly.

Harry's mouth set in a grim line. "Before we panic, let's find Dumbledore. It could be nothing, just a forest skirmish between centaurs." He looked around and they gathered their things quickly. The other students hadn't noticed anything. Draco noticed too.

"Why haven't they noticed anything?" He wondered as they packed up and set out for the castle.

"Our hearing is better than theirs, remember they are only human." Harry reminded him. "Come on, let's hurry."

They had taken only a few steps when the rain began to fall. This the other students, and looked puzzled at the abrupt change in weather.

"Oh no," Mel whispered. "There's something coming."

"How do you know?" Maxx pulled her closer to his side, looking around nervously.

"This weather is not normal. It isn't being caused by another person, the earth is just upset. Something is changing."

"The balance is changing." Mel and Julia said together. The earth began to rumble and the other students of the school began to panic. The rain fell harder and people began running towards the school.

Dumbledore suddenly Apparated in front of them. "The wards are down!" He looked suddenly fifty years younger, his eyes were furious and were glinting dangerously. "The Weasley's have been attacked. The Aurors went to help, and while they were occupied, Death Eaters took down the wards around Hogwarts. We must get the students inside! The eight of you need to be ready, Voldemort wil be looking for you, especially you Harry."

The eight of them felt the huge weight that was being put upon them. Dumbledore didn't wait for an answer and instead started running with the strength of a man half his age towards the currently panicking student body. On the way he cast a sonorous. "ALL STUDENTS TO THE DUNGEONS NOW!" The mass of bodies moved as one towards the great entrance.

A huge silver shield suddenly sprang into existence around the school. Harry looked at Draco with wide eyes. "Are you doing that?"

Draco's eyes were pure molten silver as he answered in a furious voice. "Yes. To protect the students until they get inside."

"Good thinking." Hermione said, watching as darkened shapes flew out of the sky and collided with the barrier. She shivered. other saw them too. More dark shapes swarmed out of the forest. Aurors began Apparating onto the grounds in droves.

"Let's find him." Harry said. Everyone knew what he meant. They followed him into the middle of the grounds. Julia swiftly transformed into her thunderbird form and melded with the thunderheads above. She came back almost instantly.

"East." She said grimly. "Surrounded by his inner circle."

"Draco, take your shield down now," Harry told him. "Let the Aurors deal with protecting the school. We need to get to Voldemort." Draco nodded and the silver shield collapsed. Instantly there were spelled being fired from all directions, shouts of pain and battle cries surrounded them.

"Up that hill!" Julia pointed. The thunder and rain got worse. They ran at top speed until they got to the top of the hill. They were blocked by a giant. He leered disgustingly at them and swung a meaty fist towards Draco, the closest one. Harry glared and the fist froze in place. The giant looked surprised and then angry.

"Great! Now you've pissed it off!" Blaise shouted over the now screaming wind. Harry shrugged and they all shed their school robes. They had taken to wearing their battle gear underneath at all times, so they would be prepared. Harry pulled out his sword and leapt at the giant. Out of the corner of his eye he saw another giant lumber towards Mel and Maxx but he knew they could handle it. As they engaged the giants in battle, Julia, Aaron, Hermione, and Blaise were preoccupied with trying to find where Voldemort was. Julia turned around from scanning the battlefield below to find her friends all missing.

"No!" She screamed, in all the noise it was hard to hear and she could barely see. It was the exact scene from her vision. She couldn't see the tracks of the giants on the ground where they must have lumbered off to while being attacked. A hand swung at her from behind and she spun around, whipping out a small dagger to face her attacker. Aaron stood before her, his arms held out in front of him.

"It's me, "He shouted over the noise. "This way!" She tried not to cry with relief and took his hand. They followed the giant tracks that Aaron could apparently see through the dark deep into the forest before they came upon the bodies of the two giants. The others were there waiting, and they set off running again.

They came to a clearing. It was surrounded by eighteen figures in pitch black robes with white masks, and in the center stood Voldemort, with his snake Nagini.

"Harry Potter," he sneered. "And you brought some friends. How…convenient. They will die first!" He cackled gleefully and the sound of it sent shivers down their spines. This man was completely mad.

"Surround them!" Harry shouted. His friends spread out, each facing two or three opponents.

"Ready to die, brat?" One murmured, coming closer. Harry was about to respond when the Death Eater fell at his feet, dead with a dagger in his back. Draco was glaring murderously at him.

"Fuck you," the blond spat. Harry grinned, and the battle began.

While the Death Eaters admittedly were great duelists, they were not a match for the eight teens. The clearing was a mass of chaos. Vines and tree branches waved everywhere, roots appearing from nowhere to grab at ankles, ice was forming underneath feet, wind was blowing at hurricane forces, lightning struck those who dared oppose the Octet. Voldemort watched it all with a growing rage. How dare these brats kill his followers?

Harry danced around, laughing. This was _easy_. A Death Eater snarled at him and he winked back, causing the Death Eater to get tripped by a root that was suddenly in his way. He scrambled to get back on his feet and swung a curse toward Harry, who nimbly dodged it and glared at the earth, which split apart with a loud groan to engulf the screaming Death Eater. He smirked and leapt on to the next target.

A few feet away, Draco was dueling his father, of course. The old man had sought him out, wishing to punish his son. "Die, son, for you have betrayed the house of Malfoy and deserve the punishment of a traitor." The man calmly informed his son while blocking spells from Draco.

"Sorry Father," Draco said just as calmly. "I have no intention of dying today." He threw one last spell with his wand, which his father absorbed with some sort of purple shield, and then ducked. The green killing curse sailed over his head, and then his father was staring, confounded, at the place where Draco had stood. A light and airy laugh from overhead caused him to look up. His son hovered over him, held in the air by a pair of huge, silvery wings. Lucius snarled.

"I always knew you were fairy." He said insultingly. Draco glanced at Harry, who was fighting another Death Eater, and merely chuckled. His boyfriend was in his element, dodging curses and using his powers brilliantly.

He lowered himself to his father's height and punched him. Lucius stumbled back and then took out a long sword. Draco smirked. So that was how it was to be. He brought out his own weapon and began the dance.

On the other side of the circle, Maxx and Mel were holding their own. They stood together, hand in hand, perfectly still and looking angelic, while Death Eaters came at them from every side. They simply stood there, and Sang. The Song was deadly, a haunting melody that simply stopped the heart from beating. A few of the Death Eaters fell dead without ever taking another step. One reached out at Mel from behind, but Aaron leapt out of the shadows without warning and slit the throat of the man about to curse her. She smiled, and kept singing her deadly Song.

Julia was rampaging through the circle of dark wizards in her unicorn form. She struck one in front of her with her hoof then drew back and impaled him on her deadly horn. Hermione fought beside her, pulling various weapons out of her belt and landing blows everywhere her hand struck. She was incredibly accurate, and from a few feet away Blaise watched out of the corner of his eye as the men fell around her quickly. He fluttered around in his bat form, watching the Dark Lord to make sure he didn't try anything. He shot disabling spells at any that the others missed, which were quickly downed and taken care of by those on the ground.

It seemed like barely any time had passed away before the inner circle of Death Eaters was disposed of. Bodies lay around them and they averted their eyes. They had prepared for this, but they had never killed. Voldemort noticed and laughed manically.

"There is your weakness. Emotion!" He shook his head in mock pity. "It is always the downfall of the Light."

"How can you be like that?" Hermione asked furiously, wiping her sweaty hair out of her eyes. "They were loyal to you!"

"They are replaceable." He waved his hands dismissively. "I have to admit, that was some impressive spellwork there. I have never seen a spell that can manipulate the elements before. Perhaps we could work out a compromise," he wondered aloud. The gleam of power shone in his eyes. These weaklings knew spells he did not. He could use them, take their knowledge, and then kill them.

Harry was shaking his head. "I don't think so Tom." Voldemort snarled at the nickname. "We are here to kill you, that is our only purpose in seeking you out."

Voldemort cackled again. Without a response, he raised both his hands and dark magic began to coalesce around him. Black magic, the highest form of Dark magic there was.

The Octet watched, unsure of what to do. The darkness gathered and rose, until they could no longer see each other. Snakes formed out of the mist and struck at the eight teens. One struck Hermione in the leg, and she cried out. Blaise looked murderous. Aaron moved through the darkness, able to see perfectly, to tap Maxx on the shoulder.

"Could use some light here buddy."

The clearing was suddenly glowing with light. Mel hummed along with Maxx and the light brightened. Voldemort shielded his eyes, and the eight of them transformed into their Animagus forms. Two bats shrieked at him from above diving at his eyes. Hooves knocked him down, and fire shot at him from the mouth of a dragon. An angry black blur clawed at his legs. The shield of black magic Voldemort put up was wearing down at the attack from the animals. Draco and Harry shot a blast of pure raw magic, bursting a hole in the shield. Voldemort screamed angrily when fire burned through the hole and seared his arm.

"ENOUGH!" He screamed, leaping to his feet and flinging his arms wide. The eight animals were knocked out of reach by the raw magic emanating from the evil creature. Instantly they were transformed back into their human selves. Through their telepathic bond came the thought, **Link hands. We can do this.**

Voldemort began complicated spellwork with his wand, and the eight struggled onto their feet to form a circle. They linked hands, Hermione barely able to stand, and Maxx and Mel hummed. A dome formed over their circle. Suddenly the screeching wind was silent, the rain stopped from above, and all they could hear was each other's harsh breathing. The world raged on outside of their bubble. Voldemort continued his spell, a sickly green looking mist beginning to take form. Julia suddenly panicked. **Do NOT let that touch you! It is the killing curse, but it can spread much farther. If we let it out of this dome, it will kill everything and everyone in its path.**

The others nodded to show they got her meaning and then they poured all of their magic into the being in the middle of their circle. Voldemort stopped his spell and shrieked defiantly. The magic poured into him, all the powerful colors of the mages at once, and he sunk to his knees in pain. Then the circle broke, and the eight of them were moving so fast it was only a blur. A kick to the head, a hit to the stomach, Voldemort blocking as many as he could with his now weak shields. Suddenly all movement stopped. Voldemort looked up into the eyes of Harry Potter, glowing green, and his partner. The icy blue eyes burned into him. The tip of Harry's sword was at his throat.

"Yield, and we will grant you mercy that you would not have granted us."

Voldemort lowered his eyes, panting. Then he slowly stood. He raised his eyes…and swept out with one hand. They were thrown back, and the man, laughing, Apparated.

"Damn it Harry! If we let him escape, everyone will die! Next time, just kill him." Draco said angrily.

"Let's go!" Julia said urgently. They teleported to the school and gasped at the sight. The ground was littered with bodies. It was hard to tell which side they were from. They picked their way among the bodies towards a green glow at the top of the stairs to Hogwarts. They could see the sickly green mist again, thickly shrouding a figure. All around them, bloodied Aurors and even some students battled the masses of dementors, giants, trolls, vampires, and Death Eaters. The battle looked hopeless.

Voldemort concentrated on his spell. Soon everyone would be dead. Regrettable that he had to kill all his followers along with the other side, but he could find new followers. Suddenly he was surrounded by the eight teens again. The dome over his head reappeared, and the deadly hum began. He blocked it out with his mind, but it hammered at his skull, knocking at his defenses. He looked up, and there were those emerald eyes again. "This time, you die Tom."

This time the mages poured all of themselves into the Dark Lord. He had proven his magic was good enough to block individual attacks, but their power combined was too much. They did not make the mistake of breaking the circle again. The green mist dissipated, and Voldemort seemed to crumple in on himself. A huge surge of power rose from the man in a giant wave, and he collapsed, a mere man, no longer a wizard. Harry cautiously approached him, sword in hand, and said, "Emotion is not a weakness. Emotion is what gives us the strength that you could never have." And he plunged the sword through his chest.

That was it. The Dark Lord was dead.

But the war was far from over. Hundreds of his believers still fought for the belief that Voldemort had stood for. The octet stayed on the battlefield, fighting side by side with classmates and Aurors to dispatch the rest of Voldemort's army. After they joined the Light army, favor quickly turned to their side.

When it was over, they stood gathered in the Great Hall. Hermione and Julia were busy healing as many wounds as they could. Dumbledore stood before them, weary and covered in blood, but alive.

"Congratulations. It is over." Nobody cheered. "But it comes at a great cost. We lost many lives in this battle." The attitude was somber, many people quietly sobbing, some moaning in pain. "But now, thanks to these eight mages, we can rest knowing we are safe. Voldemort is dead." This time people clapped and smiled again. The days behind them were dark, but the balance was restored. The Light had prevailed, and they could move on with their lives.


End file.
